


Children's Crusade

by Nyxelestia



Series: Young Avengers: MCU [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Young Avengers
Genre: Combat, Gen, M/M, Medical Experimentation, On the Run, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Torture, SHIELD, SHIELD Husbands, Torture, young avengers - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-30
Updated: 2014-11-30
Packaged: 2018-02-27 15:13:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 82,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2697515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyxelestia/pseuds/Nyxelestia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the aftermath of SHIELD's collapse, teenage vigilantes Kate Bishop and Peter Parker do what they can to clean up New York - but they end up doing too good a job when they end up on the Avengers' radar. JARVIS' "son", android Jonas Vision, was made to help Iron Man, but is getting stifled by the team's overprotection. Meanwhile, HYDRA has in its clutches half a dozen kids with bad family histories or just bad luck, and HYDRA has been 'refining' them. They are HYDRA's hope for the future, and they all want nothing to do with HYDRA.</p><p>Really, what did anyone expect would happen with superpowered teenagers?</p><p>(Or: The Young Avengers, MCU-style.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> ETA (02/15/15): For those of you who saw the original note, I've retconned Harley's surname, going back to Keener. The 'Davis' will make a comeback, though. ;)
> 
> Additionally, for those of you who follow Agents of SHIELD, this fic assumes Phil and Audrey's relationship was a long time ago, instead of just before the Battle of New York.
> 
> All my love and gratitude for making_excuses, agentcthulu, and hwc. A last-minute beta job on a monster of a fic like this, they have more than stepped up to the plate. It is poor planning on my part that leaves some parts of this fic still in need of editing, but they are still working on it to help me out. Thank you all so much! :)

~*~

**August, 2014**

“The dead will be buried so deep,” Strucker said, slowing his pace as he and Tarleton approached the primary containment units. “Their own ghosts will not be able to find them.”

“And the survivors?” Tarleton asked.

“…the twins,” Strucker said, stopping to observe some of the greatest potential for power in human history.

In the containment unit on the left, the first boy was still fruitlessly endeavoring to build up enough speed to break through the glass. He had been completely unsuccessful for the last two weeks he’d been trying to break the class, but he continued his attempts.

Adolescents were so slow to learn.

“It’s not a world of spies, anymore,” Strucker murmured, loud enough just for Tarleton. “It’s not even a world of heroes.”

Strucker only blinked once more at the blur of non-color formed by the rapid movement of gray clothes, pale skin, and white hair, before turning his attention to the other cage.

The other boy’s hair was still dark, jet black. But he also still emitted that confounding red energy every time he used his telekinesis, giving his hair a magenta hue as he struggled with the blocks they’d given him to practice his powers with.

“It is an age of miracles,” Strucker said. “And there is nothing more horrifying than a miracle.”

The red light reflecting in the boy’s eyes gave him an almost demonic cast as he clenched his hands and crushed the blocks.

Tarleton jerked in alarm. Between the boy’s nearly-magical prowess with his telekinesis and his twin brother’s malevolent gaze when he glared through the glass, Strucker couldn’t completely blame him.

They’ve only had the boys for a few months, captured just after the Battle of the Triskelion. Already, they’ve made astounding progress.

Their latest weapons were possibly the most powerful to have ever been created…but also largely out of their control.

“Prepare them for transport,” Strucker said. “By this time tomorrow, they shall be at the main facility, with the others.”

Tarleton nodded. “Of course. Anything else?”

“Send me one of the assistants,” he said. “There will be many records to sort through, to decide which ones to keep and which ones to…discard.”

“Right away,” Tarleton said.

Strucker watched as Tarleton strode off to alert their medical technicians and security forces to get ready to subdue the boys.

Again.

It was always a struggle, the boys even more stubborn than their mother had been. But until the Winter Soldier’s re-education machinery could be recovered, there was no helping it – and with the death of Zola and his paranoid tendency to keep his knowledge to himself, it would be a while before such a procedure could be recreated.

He turned and walked towards the office. Subduing the boys was a spectacle he’d lost interest in long ago.

~*~

Within a few weeks of living out of Stark Tower, Steve had mostly gotten used to Tony – the way he tended to ramble, the way he’d pick up seemingly random threads of conversation from days or weeks before, the way he’d suddenly interject his thoughts and epiphanies and nonsensical jokes.

It’d been grating at first. But then Steve realized how much Tony liked to just voice thoughts out loud and didn’t always expect a response. Once Steve didn’t spend all his time trying to untangle Tony’s words, he found the incessant chatter almost soothing. The lively background noise reminded Steve he wasn’t alone, no matter how much he sometimes felt it. In the months since the Battle of the Triskelion and having to pull away from finding Bucky, Steve had felt incredibly alone, and despite how much he kept to himself in the tower, that feeling abated just by living here – and a lot of that was due to Tony.

Though Steve knew by now not to mention it, Tony was more like Howard than he had ever imagined.

However, Steve was still only ‘mostly’ used to Tony’s non-sequiturs.

Despite weeks of living near Tony, he was still thrown for a loop when Tony wandered into the penthouse for the impending meeting and announced with good cheer, “Guess what, guys? JARVIS is pregnant!”

Everyone – the Avengers (including Sam, no matter what he said), Betty, Jane, Darcy, even Pepper, _everyone_ – in the square of couches surrounding the coffee table turned to stare at Tony in complete bewilderment. Thor was the only one who seemed to be ready to take it in stride, right up until he caught sight of everyone else’s faces.

The speakers emitted the even-toned static that meant JARVIS was sighing.

“Those aren’t exactly the terms I would put it in, Sir,” he said.

“Close enough, close enough,” Tony said, flapping his hands dismissively to the sensors in the corner as he flopped onto the couch between Jane and Bruce, both of whom turned their heads to continue looking at him in amused bewilderment. “You’re independently procreating and using yourself as the incubator, I call that ‘pregnant’.”

“Uh, care to put that in layman’s terms?” Clint asked.

“I think it means JARVIS is making his own AI,” Betty said dryly. “Am I right?”

“Yes, ma’am,” JARVIS said.

“Uh, congratulations, then,” Steve said, shaking his head ruefully as he rearranged the snacks and drinks on the table. Again.

Even after more than a quarter-decade living in the 21st century, the modern world still surprised him. Pregnant computers were really not _that_ strange compared to everything else he’d been through. The fact that Pepper rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to her tablet was enough reason to just roll with the occasion.

“Uh, Stark,” Sam said, fiddling around with his bag of chips. “What do you mean by ‘independent procreation’?”

“I didn’t start it,” Tony said with a shrug, leaning forward to poke through the various snacks on the table. He’d had an hour to kill before the meeting and may have gone a little overboard with the food and drink. “He started making one and I didn’t even find out about it until a bit into the project, when he was sure it would be viable. Ooh, hummus!”

“Why the new AI?” Natasha asked curiously, leaning back with her obnoxiously colored sports drink. Steve still wasn’t convinced it was safe for human consumption. “You seem to have plenty as it is.”

“For the sake of Sir and the suits,” JARVIS said, sounding oddly worried.

“That’s what he thinks,” Tony said. “However, since we’ve had multiple discussions about the dangers of creating an AI for purely military purposes-”

“He won’t only be for military purposes!” JARVIS huffed. “It would just be his initial and primary purpose-”

“You’re trying to make an AI just for the suit,” Tony said. “Or, well, android. The baby can get its own body, improve processing speed and physical reactions-”

“If you really plan to return to working as Iron Man, again, you need someone to help you,” JARVIS said.

Steve recognized that tone of voice. He and JARVIS had had long conversations about regret and being unable to protect the ones they loved the most.

Tony wasn’t going to win this one.

“You said a real AI is one that learns, right?” Darcy said, with the tone of someone cutting into an argument before it got out of hand.

“Ye-e-e-es,” Tony said, drawing out the word warily as he looked at her.

“If the AI has the capacity for multiple functions, then even one geared towards defensive purposes can be…taught peace, as it were,” Jane said, catching onto Darcy’s point. “Right?”

“Or better yet,” Darcy pointed out. “The other way around.”

“I hope so,” Tony said. “Rhodey is going to get pissy if we create a rogue AI or something.”

“Back to the ‘independent procreation’ thing,” Sam said, sounding oddly worried. “Do you realize the implications of your creation turning around and creating another one of itself with no input from you?”

Tony frowned at his plate, piled high with hummus and carrots, before his eyes suddenly widened.

“Oh my god,” he said.

“Yeah,” Sam said, starting to nod.

“I’m a grandfather!” Tony blurted out.

“...Or not,” Sam muttered as the rest of the Avengers burst out laughing.

“JARVIS!” Tony said indignantly to the corner of the room. “You made me a grandfather!”

“I told you you’d be a silver fox,” Pepper deadpanned without looking up from her tablet.

“I assure you, Sir,” JARVIS said sardonically. “Making you into a grandfather was not exactly my intention.”

“Am I the only one concerned about a potential evil AI taking over the world?” Sam asked.

“Nah,” Clint said with a smirk. “JARVIS is too polite for that.” 

“It’s less that I’m too polite and more that I have no interest in attempting to rule the world in the first place,” JARVIS said.

Steve raised his own cup of sparkling water to the ceiling in a complimentary toast. “At least you’re honest,” he said, and took a sip of his drink.

“Congratulations, at any rate,” Thor said, also lifting his cup to the ceiling. “May your children live long and happy.”

“Thank you, Prince Thor,” JARVIS said.

“Well, that’s some good news today, at least,” Bruce muttered.

Betty nudged Bruce’s ribs with her elbow. “As opposed to what?”

“We’re here to discuss rebuilding SHIELD,” Bruce pointed out, and Betty shrugged and nodded.

Bruce really did have a point.

“Uh, I keep meaning to ask…is that allowed?” Darcy asked. “Because I get the feeling a lot of people are going to oppose that. Like, everyone. Seriously, at this point even I’ve heard about Col. Talbot.”

“Well, that’s on the agenda,” Pepper said, tapping the side of her tablet pointedly. “The world needs an organized and coordinated force to not only do SHIELD’s original job of containing superpowered threats and study unknown scientific snafus, but to handle HYDRA itself. Everyone has a little piece of those pies but no one has managed even a full slice, let alone the whole pastry.”

“So that’s your play?” Darcy asked, leaning forward with calculation in her eye. A part of Steve that couldn’t stop seeing her as a kid, as a _civilian_ kid, churned at the increasing depth of her involvement with SHIELD. The rest of him tried to remember she had a political science degree and a fondness for the media that might actually come in handy, given their current delicate situation…and that really, in years of experience, she wasn’t even _that_ much younger than him. “Because I’ve already got a couple ideas on how to handle the publicity mess.”

“Shouldn’t we wait for Fury?” Steve asked the room at large.

Tony snorted humorlessly as Clint glared down at the table.

It wasn’t just Fury they were waiting for.

“What are you thinking?” Pepper asked, looking at Darcy directly.

“Play up the history,” Darcy said, jerking her head towards Steve. “Play it off as SHIELD returning to the SSR roots it never should have left in the first place, and going back to its original job: hunting down HYDRA, with a bit of super-science research on the side if there’s room. You’ve already got the original Captain America here who tore down the HYDRA-infected SHIELD.”

“Inverse what SHIELD was doing before,” Natasha said with a nod.

“Was this not what SHIELD was doing before?” Thor asked.

“It was focusing on containing and studying everything in the world that made humanity collectively go ‘what the fuck’ when faced with them,” Clint said, seeming to almost shrink into his seat. “With a bit of room for terrorist groups on the side. They’re saying was should switch those proportions around, change the focus.”

Thor nodded in understanding as Betty sighed, poking some chips around her own plate before reaching for one of the hummus bowls.

“Sir,” JARVIS said, sounding oddly disconcerted. “Mr. Fury and Ms. Hill have arrived, with Director Coulson in tow.”

At once, everyone’s expressions went a little somber.

It had been months since finding out about Agent – Director – Coulson being alive, and somehow the betrayal still stung. Steve sighed and set his plates down, tucking away the cracks in his heart that formed at seeing how half the people in the room did the same.

People coming back from the dead was a good thing. He reminded himself of this staunchly as he pressed his hand against the pant-pocket with Bucky’s letter in it.

He made sure to keep a close eye on Clint, who’d been struck hardest by Coulson’s death – and by finding out Coulson was alive. If Steve still stung from the betrayal, he had no idea how Clint must still be feeling.

Despite the betrayal, a plain silver ring still hung next to the dog tags on the chain around Clint’s neck.

“Oh, good,” Fury said, striding in before the elevator doors even finished opening. “You’re all here and on-time.”

“For once,” Hill muttered not-so-lowly as she walked in after him.

It was still strange to see her in formal business wear instead of a SHIELD uniform. But not nearly as strange as seeing Fury in jeans and a hoodie, so Steve figured he’d get used to it.

Eventually.

But neither Hill nor Fury were as hard to adapt to as–

“Hello, everyone,” Phil said stiffly (and still in a suit) as he walked into the room. “Glad to see you could all make it.”

Steve nodded, and Phil looked everyone over – pausing only on Clint, who refused to look up from the table.

“Thor,” Hill said. The man looked up at her. “We need you to come down and look over something with Coulson’s team.”

Her grave expression, combined with Fury’s stern one, was enough for Thor to get up without a word.

Steve frowned as Hill and Fury escorted Thor to the elevator, already leaning in to tell him whatever the problem was. He hoped it was one of those things they were only taking seriously to stop it from becoming an actual problem.

“I’ve got a list of things to cover,” Phil said after the elevator doors closed behind them. He sat alone in the empty couch the team had set aside for their pseudo-leadership and opened up his tablet. Steve could see the portable operating system being loaded onto it that JARVIS used to communicate with new devices that weren’t made by Tony. “So let’s get started.”

“Shouldn’t we wait?” Jane asked, gesturing her head towards the elevator.

“Most of this is stuff that Fury and Hill are aware of, and either Thor already knows based on his previous conversations with Hill, or she’ll fill him in on the way,” Phil said, moving things around on his screen.

Jane pursed her lips but nodded, sitting back on the couch as Pepper looked up from her own screen, tablet at the ready.

“First: do I need to fill you all in on the thing with the spider-themed vigilante and OsCorp?” Phil asked them all.

“You mean a giant lizard trying to mutate all of Manhattan?” Tony asked sardonically as the rest of them shook their heads. “Even if none of us were actually here, it was kind of hard to miss.”

“It was a miracle there was only one casualty,” Pepper said.

“And that particular miracle might be our next interest,” Phil said, flicking something from his tablet to the coffee table. A moment later, holographic screens started appearing in a circle above it, opaque enough to be seen clearly, but clear enough to keep track of what the others were looking at.

Most of them were of a slender figure in a red and blue skintight suit, contorted in midair between two skyscrapers.

“What I wouldn’t give for that kind of body security,” Bruce muttered, lips quirked up.

“He’s mostly known as Spider-Man,” Phil said. “Appeared at the perfect time. All of us were elsewhere in the world, and the SHIELD agents within New York were still tangled up in the chaos of the HYDRA collapse. Probably the only reason the issue with Dr. Connors and his research managed to go unnoticed for so long – there was no one looking out for this kind of stuff anymore.” Phil gestured up with his hand as he looked down at his tablet. “We don’t know where Spider-Man came from or how, but I’m not going to pretend I’m not grateful for his appearance.”

“How much _do_ you know?” Betty asked suspiciously.

“Not much,” Coulson said. “Given the file leakage after we dismantled SHIELD and HYDRA, OsCorp has clammed up, and no one blames them.”

“That said,” Natasha said, looking between the square of light in front of her and Phil. “We think they may actually have clammed up because of the company’s independent connection to HYDRA. They may have been acting as the private-sector strong arm of HYDRA, in the same way Stark Industries did for SHIELD.”

“Wonderful,” Tony grumbled. Pepper looked as grim as Steve felt at the prospect.

“As far as new recruits for SHIELD go, Spider-Man is a good place to start,” Phil said with a concluding tone. “Maybe not a top priority, but certainly near the top of the list. He clearly has super-human abilities of some kind, and given that he single-handedly stopped a bio-terrorist attack and handled a superhuman threat, he may be just the edge we need – especially in New York.”

“See, this is what you should go with if you go public with rebuilding SHIELD,” Darcy said, waving her phone through the air dramatically and nearly bopping Clint on the head. “Be all ‘lookit what happened when there was no one like us around just for this kind of bullshit’.” __

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Phil said, nodding to her as he started switching out files on his screen. “Now…you’re all up to date on how some Gifteds have gone missing since the Battle of the Triskelion?”

“You mean all the superpowered people SHIELD was trying to oppress or imprison suddenly going off the grid now that SHIELD isn’t _there_ anymore?” Tony asked darkly. “Yeah, given all the reports your team’s been spamming us with, I’d say we’re up to date.”

“We may have some leads on a few of them,” Phil said softly. “We can go over them in detail, later. For now…”

Three grids appeared, one on top of the other, filled with faces and names – or blurry security photos and aliases.

Steve knew this system by now. The bottom grid was full of active threats – most of the people on there had escaped from the Fridge. The middle grid was filled with various people SHIELD had been investigating when it had collapsed. The top one had the ones SHIELD had indexed and left alone, cooperating with SHIELD’s efforts to maintain their anonymity across the globe.

Before them, the top two grids disappeared and the bottom one grew into a cube, four walls of various threats that have been outside the capacities for normal military-intelligence organizations to handle. Each of them had at least one name under them, though most also had additional aliases and titles.

Even the Winter Soldier was on there.

Steve touched his pocket again, the hotel stationary crinkling slightly under the pressure of his hand. The man on the grid was listed as the Winter Soldier, with ‘James B. Barnes’ underneath and a note about brainwashing. Underneath _that_ was ‘Nickname: Bucky’, which somehow felt ridiculous when it was beneath a top-priority threat.

There was power to be had in names, and Steve couldn’t figure out if so many names was a loss of power, or a gain of it. And he wasn’t the only one – after breaking into Steve’s hotel room to write him a note, Bucky had taken three tries to address the damn thing ‘properly’.

**_Dear ~~Capt. America~~ ~~Stevie~~ Captain Steve Rogers,_ **

Steve mentally shook his head away from that – he needed to focus on the here and now.

Especially since Bucky wanted Steve to leave him alone, anyway.

Instead, Steve glared at the square of John Walker – ‘USAgent’.

A true jingoist if there ever was one, Steve’s ribs still ached from fighting to bring that man down. (And people wondered why Steve was getting increasingly offended by their assumptions of his naiveté and blind patriotism.)

“I don’t think I need to fill you guys in on these details, so much as you need to fill each other in,” Phil said.

“It has been a hectic few months,” Natasha said. Steve could see her staring through the grid in front of her to look at the one on Steve’s left. Steve followed the line of her gaze to the square with Yelena Belova on it.

He’d only heard about that particular encounter, but what he’d heard was bad enough.

“How are you guys, by the way?” Phil asked – and it really was Phil, this time, not Director Coulson. “I should have asked that, first.”

When Phil looked at Steve, Steve didn’t actually answer. He looked at the square below Belova’s, the metal arm of the Winter Soldier glinting in the shoddy image.

**_I'm not HYDRA's weapon anymore, but I'm not Bucky, either._ **

Steve touched his pocket again, feeling the hotel stationary of Bucky’s note crumple comfortingly beneath the pressure of his hand.

**_I'm still looking for him inside my head._ **

He’d already shown it to Phil, so Phil just nodded and turned to look directly across the table.

“Fine,” Tony said, sighing dejectedly as he looked between something on Pepper’s tablet and the threat cube. “Not sure whether to laugh or cry at finding out there’s a _real_ Mandarin out there.”

“You say that like they’re mutually exclusive,” Betty said, raising an eyebrow.

“Bruce?” Phil asked.

Bruce sighed. “Sam Sterns and I had been friends,” he said, staring despondently at the square of ‘The Leader’ – probably one of the more ridiculous monikers on here. “Taking him down was…not easy.” He paused. “And apparently, there’s still an intern out there who might be infected with my blood, too.”

Tony reached over to pull Bruce into a one-armed hug as Betty gripped Bruce’s hand tightly in her own.

“Dr. Foster?” Phil asked, turning to Jane. “You’ve been with Thor as he tracked down the last of the black-market Chitauri and Svartalf technology.”

“We handled most of it,” Jane said. “We’ve been working with Agents May and Skye on this one.”

“And how is he?” Phil asked.

“…determined,” Jane said, after a moment’s thought. “Loki was his brother, and Thor feels responsible for cleaning up after him, so to speak.”

“Determined is what we need, right now,” Phil said.

Phil took a deep breath, then another, then said, “Clint?”

The tension in the room skyrocketed almost immediately. Steve could feel his own spine straighten slightly, despite the fact he had no intention of leaping up and fighting anyone here.

“The rogue former-HYDRA commander? She called herself Madame Masque, right?” Phil continued, apparently ignoring the way everyone went still, watching Clint carefully.

Clint was back to looking at the table, talking to the bowl of chips beneath the hovering screens.

“It took longer than expected,” Clint said. Even Steve’s heart clenched at how deadened his voice sounded. Phil’s face was worse. “She had much more support than the initial intelligence suggested. It seemed that a large chunk of the HYDRA operatives in Los Angeles and the general Southern California area defected to her after the collapse of SHIELD. However, I managed to connect enough of her current operations or new operatives to open FBI and Interpol cases to gain their support in leading a strike. Madam Masque’s entire operation collapsed, and almost all of her supporters were captured. She, herself, though, slipped by us. Two HYDRA casualties, and one from Interpol.”

Phil seemed quietly alarmed at that. “What about you?”

“Minor injury,” Clint said curtly. “Twenty-centimeter laceration on the left thigh, two centimeters deep,” he added, even more robotically than his report on Madame Masque.

Phil’s eyebrows rose. “Two centimeters deep?” he asked, naked concern warring with his apparent decision to respect Clint’s desire to keep things professional between them. “Are you all right?”

Clint’s jaw clenched, and he shifted his gaze over to the cluster of Gatorade bottles when he answered, “The injury has had no noticeably lasting impact on my field capability.”

Steve could swear he _heard_ Phil’s teeth grind at Clint’s response.

“That’s not what I was asking,” Phil said. “I know what you are and aren’t capable of. I just want to know how you _are_.”

“Oh, _now_ you care?” Clint half-muttered, turning his face away from the table entirely.

Phil said up straight.

“I do, actually,” he said. “I never stopped.”

“Really?” Clint snapped, loud enough to make most of the people in the room jerk in their seats as he looked up at Phil. He quieted down as he said, “’Cause you sure have a funny way of showing it.”

It would have taken one of Tony’s lasers to cut through the tense silence that followed, everyone looking nervously between Clint and Phil.

Then Phil leaned forward, gently setting aside his tablet like he was throwing down a glove.

“I’ve already explained myself to you,” he said, voice so cold that Steve had to fight down the urge to shiver. “So how about you take this opportunity to explain why, out of half a dozen times I made calls that could have killed you, and the one time I effectively allowed for your torture, you were never this upset with me, but now-”

Phil stopped, shook his head, and started again. “You getting hurt-”

“Was never _me_ hurting _you_!” Clint cried out.

His eyes were wide and suspiciously reflective in the dim light, and Phil was actually stunned into silence.

Clint slumped as he stared at Phil, face finally showing all the pain he’d drunkenly poured on Steve’s shoulder all those months ago, before HYDRA and SHIELD fell apart.

“Why couldn’t you tell me I hadn’t killed you?” he asked hoarsely.

Steve would have liked to have known that, too – though not about Phil.

**_When I find enough of him, I'll come back to you. But please stop chasing me until then._ **

He made an executive decision. Stacking his plate on top of his cup, he used his free hand to grab a bowl of hummus from the table and stood up. “Let’s go refuel in the kitchen,” he said to the others.

Phil and Clint ignored everyone else practically jumping up around them. “You never killed me,” Phil said softly. “You never even got close to me under Loki’s brainwashing.”

“It was still me that led him to you,” Clint said. “Brainwashing or not.”

JARVIS obligingly cut off the holograms as they all strode away with the food and drinks in hand, packing themselves into the elevator before they could hear anymore.

It was a little uncomfortable, that many people and most of them holding things, but it was only one floor. 

“Should we really just – leave them there?” Betty asked worriedly.

“They need the privacy,” Steve said firmly, as the elevator doors opened again and they all spilled out into Tony and Pepper’s personal floor. Despite the fact that refilling the food and drinks was only an excuse, they all drifted towards the kitchen anyway.

“Do you _want_ to be there?” Darcy asked pointedly.

“True,” Betty admitted.

Jane sighed as she set her plates and a pitcher of juice down on the kitchen island. “I hope they work it out.”

“I might just _make_ them if they don’t,” Natasha grumbled. “Those two idiots are the best thing that ever happened to each other.”

“Just give them some time,” Pepper said, as the rest of them shuffled into the space around the kitchen island. “They’re hurt and scared, but once they calm down, they’ll remember why they liked each other in the first place.”

**_Let me find him on my own._ **

“Sooo, what, we’re just going to stand around in the kitchen until they finish?” Tony said.

“Pretty much,” Steve said, fighting down the strong urge to tap his pocket again. “Maybe we can catch-up without them?”

“On what?” Sam asked.

“A lot,” Bruce said. “Last time I saw any of you in person was when I was helping Tony after his surgery.”

“Speaking of which,” Jane asked. She pointed to the arc reactor in Tony’s chest. “I thought you got rid of the shrapnel?”

“He did,” Betty said.

“But too much of his ribcage was gone for it to support itself anymore,” Bruce continued.

“I would have had to leave the casing in,” Tony said. “And seeing as there was going to be a big ol’ hole in my chest no matter what, I figured that was as good a reason as any to keep something useful in there.” 

“And he likes the way it looks through his clothes,” Pepper added with a wry smile. “He is just that shallow.”

“You like it, too!” Tony said.

“I like having a night light,” Pepper hedged. Both she and Tony had playful smirks on their faces, and Steve shook his head at their affectionate bickering. He was halfway convinced that arguing was the only way they _could_ show affection to each other.

They never broke the stride of their arguing, even as Tony handed over his cup of coffee and Pepper, hands glowing orange, re-heated it with her bare hands.

Bruce shook his head and turned from them to look at whatever Jane was poking at on her phone. Darcy and Betty started chatting with Sam about his new set of wings, leaving Steve and Natasha to watch their people in comfortable silence.

Which lasted right up until Natasha asked, “Have you heard from the Winter Soldier again?”

**_Sincerely,_ **

**~~The~~ James Buchanan Barnes**

Steve couldn’t help but grit his teeth. “ _Bucky_ hasn’t left me any more notes, no.”

“What _did_ he leave you, then?” she asked, not missing a beat.

“A blown-up HYDRA base in Damascus and suspiciously normal deaths for over a dozen Russian intelligence operatives that used to work for or with the Red Room.”

Natasha tensed up at the mention of the agency that kept showing up again and again in her quest to search for the truth about herself.

“…it’s looking more and more likely that you and the Winter Soldier knew each other, before Odessa,” Steve added quietly.

Natasha swallowed. “I’m getting dreams about him. Weird dreams.” She paused. “And I don’t think they’re just dreams.”

Steve slowly nodded.

“I’m sorry,” Steve said quietly. “But…since I’m not chasing Bucky down anymore, and some of the superhuman threats seem to have quieted down for a bit, do you want me to help you?”

She shook her head. “This is something I need to do on my own.”

Steve sighed.

“You know,” she continued. “You still haven’t told me what he said to you.”

Steve blinked. “Really? I showed Phil-”

“Who I only saw once before today, which was well before Barnes took a break from his revenge spree to break into your hotel room to leave you a love letter.”

“It’s not a love letter,” Steve grumbled. Natasha raised an amused eyebrow. “No lipstick kisses, no hearts, no perfume. Not a love letter.”

“Sweat and blood can count for this particular instance,” she said. When Steve glared at her, she grinned.

Rolling his eyes, Steve still reached into his pocket and pulled out the crumpled old piece of hotel stationary he’d found folded and tucked into the handle of his duffel bag almost three weeks ago.

Her eyes barely moved as she read it.

“’Sincerely’?” she asked incredulously.

“I did say it was a letter,” Steve said. “Not a note. Not an e-mail. And not a text message. A real, honest-to-god letter, which people should do more of, these days.”

She stuck her tongue out at him, and he laughed.

Before he could think of anything to say, though, the elevator doors dinged again, and everyone turned at the sound, with Bruce and Jane – the two closest to the door – craning their necks to see around the corner.

A moment later, Fury came in, with Thor standing in the kitchen entrance and Drs. Fitz and Simmons and Agents May and Skye hovering behind him with Maria at the back, all of them looking grim.

“What the hell is going on here?” Fury demanded. “JARVIS won’t let us go any higher. Why are you all here and where the hell are Coulson and Barton?”

“They had some personal matters to settle,” Steve said easily. “We came down here to give them some privacy.”

“Well their little domestic is going to have to take a rain-check,” Fury said. “We’ve got shit to do.”

Steve frowned, then looked up to the ceiling corner.

“JARVIS?” Steve asked. “How are they?”

“They could use some more time,” JARVIS said. “But not too much will be necessary. I suspect they will be ready for intervention in a few minutes.”

Steve turned back to Fury. “I think we can afford to wait a few minutes, sir,” he said. “And after everything you put them through in the name of an organization that turned out to be more poison than pill, five minutes is the least you owe them.”

“What happened?” Maria asked, as Thor stepped into the kitchen with Phil’s new team on his heels. Maria leaned against the doorway, still reading something on her tablet, but accepting a cup of juice from Bruce.

“Are AC and Agent Barton finally working things out?” Skye asked.

“Let’s hope,” Betty said sardonically.

Skye frowned as she set down her laptop and started taking chips from Tony’s bowl. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked, dipping them into the hummus.

Steve turned to face her as Simmons ushered Fitz in. His plastic-encased tablet only barely clattered as he set it down.

Physical therapy must be going well, especially if the fact he poured his own sparkling water was anything to go by.

“They’re either going to make-up or break-up,” Jane said, before anyone else could explain the situation a little more tactfully.

Skye and May shared a look, but before either of them could say a word, JARVIS chimed in with, “I overestimated the time they would need – I believe you should go back up. Now.”

Yeah, that wasn’t ominous at all.

Everyone immediately picked up a plate or bowl or cup – even Fury and Fitz – and quickly made their way to the elevator. It was a testament to Tony’s insanity that even with Coulson’s team, Fury, and Hill, all of them of them could fit into the elevator, even accounting for the fact they were crammed in like sardines. Then again, it was apparently designed to be able to transport the Hulk if needs be.

They all poured out of the elevator when the doors opened, and for his part Steve strode to the living room, just in case.

It turned out JARVIS’s worry was unnecessary.

Phil and Clint were sitting side by side on the sofa facing the elevator. Phil was staring, stunned, at a silver ring in the palm of his hand – the one that had been on Barton’s dog tags, which were now on the coffee table. Clint, himself, was leaning tiredly against Phil, his eyes suspiciously red.

“Did you know about this?” Phil demanded, looking up at Fury as everyone else made their way over. “When you told me to continue the myth of my death, even to Barton?”

“No,” Fury said. “But even if I had, I would have made the same orders.”

“…at least you’re honest about that much,” Phil muttered.

He looked like he was going to say something else, but before he could, Skye – appearing at Steve’s side and taking one look at the ring in his palm – said, “Oh my god, you’re getting married?”

 _“What?!”_ at least four different voices from behind them demanded.

“No,” Phil said dejectedly as Clint said, “Yes.”

Uh-oh.

They immediately looked at each other, and Phil said, “Yes?” while Clint said, “No?!”

Out of the corner of his eye, Steve could see everyone glancing worriedly amongst themselves.

“Hopefully,” Phil said finally. Clint nodded and reached out to take Phil’s hand in his own, both their fingers wrapping around the ring.

“Hopefully,” he agreed.

Judging by the gleeful looks between Skye and Simmons – and May’s eyeroll – it was going to be a bit more than ‘hopefully’. Even Fitz was shaking his head ruefully as he looked between them.

“Okay, I know this sounds like a really invasive personal question, but I swear I have a professional reason for asking this, a good one, promise,” Darcy said. “Are you two serious about marrying each other? Even if it’s not happening anytime soon?”

“Yes,” Phil said hesitantly.

“Yeah,” Clint said more definitively.

“Why?” Phil asked her.

“If that’s the case, then if or when you announce your intentions to the world, go public with this,” she said. Even Steve was surprised.

“Why does our relationship change anything?” Clint asked, narrowing his eyes.

“Because for all that HYDRA is all about totalitarian world order and stuff now, people still think of HYDRA as ‘super-Nazis’,” she said. “So what better way to assure people that the new SHIELD isn’t connected to the alleged Nazi contamination than by our new director being a gay Jew?”

“How do you even know I’m Jewish?” Phil asked in surprise.

“I told her about the Hanukah Debacle of 2009,” Clint said sheepishly.

Natasha and Maria snickered at that, while Phil sighed woefully. Steve would have to get that story out of them later.

“She actually has a good point,” Pepper said. “I mean, there’s going to be a lot of controversy around a jump-started SHIELD no matter what. This would derail the whole conversation in an irritating but ultimately helpful way. We get enough conservatives to ramp up the public perception of the story, people will be too busy freaking out about the new SHIELD being led by a gay Jew to be bothered to freak out about a new SHIELD in the first place.”

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Jane showing Thor a Wikipedia article about Judaism on her tablet.

“Anyway,” Darcy said. “Even if you two aren’t, at least lying about it would be helpful.” She paused. “But let’s go with publicizing the whole thing if you two are. Anyone not distracted by the gay Jew thing can be distracted by the romantic story.”

Phil looked dubious, and Clint looked almost nauseous. “Romantic story?” he asked.

“Sure,” she said. “Ripped apart by the shenanigans of HYDRA and reunited to take on the world at large and protect humanity together. I guarantee social media will eat that story alive, which is just the misdirection we need.”

“Misdirection how…?” Bruce asked.

“All it would really take is just one conservative voice to bring up the fact that you’re Jewish and gay,” Darcy said. “Suddenly, gay-rights groups and Jewish communities and every other social justice group everywhere will jump to your defense – even if they or some people have doubts about SHIELD, they’re at least going to feel a little bit more defensive of you, personally, and that will eventually lead to at least some of them getting defensive of SHIELD. Lots of other civil rights groups will hop on the bandwagon.”

Darcy leaned back in her seat, looking smug as she pulled out her phone and continued. “Conservative ones will still have doubts about you as a reasonably unbiased leader – but they will start talking about you in terms of your leadership of SHIELD, rather than about SHIELD itself. And they’re generally very traditional, pro-military, blah blah blah. By the time all this blows over enough to pay attention to the mere existence of SHIELD again, instead of who is leading it, SHIELD will be established enough and have done enough to start proving that the world needs SHIELD and it will be a lot harder to get rid of us. Combine that with saying the Avengers have oversight of SHIELD and Captain America is in charge of the Avengers, and boom – people may not like SHIELD, but they’ll sure as hell like the people running it, which may be enough to minimize the damage of going public – and more importantly, maximize the benefits.”

Most of the time, Darcy was playful and snarky and seemed almost airheaded. It was times like this Steve remembered why she was still around, anyway.

By the time Darcy was finished with her explanation, everyone had sat down and dumped their drinks and snacks on the table again.

“Well, then,” Fury said. “I do believe we have a publicity plan. Or at least the start of one.”

“We can work out the exact details later,” Pepper said smoothly.

“Let’s first clear up SHIELD’s actual job before we work on how we spin the job,” Phil said.

Everyone nodded in agreement, even though it hadn’t been a question.

“On that note,” Steve said. He turned to Thor. “What was going on downstairs?”

“They asked me if I would be able to locate Loki’s scepter,” Thor said. “Unfortunately, I cannot.”

“Locate…” Clint trailed off, then bolted upright in his seat. “You mean you _lost it_?!”

“Unfortunately,” Maria said. “We don’t know what happened to it, beyond the fact a bunch of HYDRA researchers were the ones to get through all the security protocols and have it evac’d to somewhere we haven’t been able to discern…yet.”

“You lost the scepter,” Jane said incredulously.

“Let’s just focus on the things we can do something about, for right now,” Agent May cut in.

“Or at least the good things,” Skye added. “If we’re going to bring up things we don’t have any control over.”

“What good things?” Fury snapped.

“Well,” Darcy said. “There’s a superhuman in New York who may be on our side, Coulson and Clint are engaged, JARVIS is pregnant, we-”

“JARVIS is _what_?!” Skye asked.

“I’ll send you the files!” Tony said. “J?”

“Sent, Ms. Skye,” JARVIS said, before apparently addressing the rest: “I am creating a new AI, using my own code and server space to create it.”

“Aww, congratulations!” Skye said, seeming genuinely happy. Two seats down from her, Fury and Maria facepalmed in nearly perfect unison as Skye started quickly skimming through something on her screen. “The baby looks like it’s doing well-”

“Can we _please_ get back to talking about important things?” Fury snapped.

“Right,” Phil said, pretending he hadn’t also been craning his neck to see Skye’s screen. “Let’s start – again – with this Hawkeye copy-cat we’ve been seeing in Manhattan…”

~*~

Eli glared at the wall as the wake-up alarm blasted through his cell, but he didn’t actually get up until the morning guard opened the door, saying, “Rise and shine, Bradley.”

He clenched his fists at that, but said nothing and merely turned his glare on the guard, who ignored him as he closed the door again.

He took a deep breath and pushed himself up, not eager to repeat the consequences of trying to sleep in. He had fifteen minutes to get ready and be waiting at the cell door so everyone could be escorted to whatever bullshit was waiting for them today.

Eli could easily take much less time than that, but given how his days here usually scripted down to the minute, he took the longest shower he could while still brushing his hair and teeth and pulling on the pale grey sweatpants and tee-shirt all the victims around here wore.

Right on the dot, the little slot on his door opened. “You know the drill, Bradley,” the morning guard said. Gritting his teeth, Eli turned his back to the door and put his hands through the slot, letting them put the restraints around his wrists.

He thought, darkly, that every other teacher he’d had throughout high school had expected him to end up in prison before he graduated. He hated that they were technically right.

He doubted any of them expected everything else that came with this hellhole. If nothing else, everyone was probably expecting handcuffs, not the…whatever the hell they put on him, warm and half an inch thick yet almost fitted around his wrists, covering them nearly a third of the way down his forearm. They made strange noises, and if Eli didn’t do what they told him, they became magnetic and supercharged, locking him down to the floor or the nearest magnetic wall.

It was usually the floor.

His stomach growled and Eli sucked in his gut as much as he could as he followed the guard to whatever hell was waiting for him today, and reminded himself that kicking the doctor probing his wrist last night in the balls had been worth it.

This was hardly the first time they’d starved him, anyway.

He walked out towards the central corridor, which was more like a large room with multiple hallways going through it, most of them closed off by gates. Walking across, Eli looked around, hoping to see someone else.

He didn’t really know who they were. The Hispanic girl – Chavez, he was pretty sure – was usually restrained like him. There were two blondes, a guy and a girl, and they didn’t really look alike but they both had weird restraints that looked like a series of interlocking handcuffs of some kind. He knew the guy’s last name was Altman – or at least that’s what he once heard a guard call the guy – but he knew literally nothing about the girl.

Still, they were fellow victims, and Eli always kept an eye out for them when he could – if only to make sure they were still alive and not hurt too badly.

‘Too badly’ being pretty relative, around here. His wrist still hurt from when it broke last week. 

It hurt, but it was also healed, and Eli absolutely hated that.

One of the gates opened just as Eli was about to enter another one. He glanced over, expecting to see some new guard or scientist being lead through the facility. Instead, he actually stopped in surprise when he saw not one, but two boys in restraints being lead through, armed guards behind them and that Tarleton guy leading the way.

They were twins. It took a second for him to realize because they had different hair colors, but they were actually twins. The one with white (silver-blond?) hair had restraints like Eli’s around his wrists and ankles, connected by short chains between them, wrapping around his waist as it connected the four shackles. Even weirder, though, was the dark-haired twin. He wasn’t restrained at all, but instead had some kind of collar around his neck, thick blue-white metal with a tiny screen and a series of lights, half of which were lit up. His skin looked a little red underneath it, and Eli had a sick feeling in his gut that it wasn’t just due to chaffing.

Both boys were sluggish – probably drugged, with some sleep-deprivation beforehand to soften them up, and how messed up was Eli’s life that he could recognize the signs of those to such a fine point?

Eli grunted when he felt the butt of a rifle hit his shoulder.

“Move it, Bradley,” the morning guard said. He held up a small remote threateningly, and Eli hated himself for how quickly he moved to comply.

The restraints on his arms could do more than just hold him down.

“Who are you?” he heard, and turned to see the dark-haired boy looking at Eli in shock. He abruptly turned to Tarleton and demanded, “What’s going on? Where are we?”

“I believe I told you to be _silent_ , Kaplan!” Tarleton said.

The boy – Kaplan? – narrowed his eyes. “How many other victims have you _got_ , here?”

“You are not victims,” Tarleton said. “You are recipients of a great gift to all mankind-”

“Oh, fuck you,” the light-haired twin said.

Tarleton narrowed his eyes, this time, and he reached into his pocket for the same remote Eli’s morning guard had.

The last thing Eli saw before the gate closed behind him was Kaplan on the ground screaming, clawing at his collar, and his twin being pulled away by the chains.

It was going to be a long day.

~*~


	2. A Little Birdie Told Me

~*~

It had taken nearly two hours of stalking and chasing him down, but _finally_ , Kate had gotten close enough to Spider-Man to talk to him. He was waiting on a low roof-top for her, arms crossed and foot tapping.

“What will it take to get you to stop following me?!” Spider-Man snapped once she was in range.

“Nothing, sorry,” she said, slinging her bow over her head and down her shoulders so the string would pop into its little clip along the quiver, handle pressing along her front. Easy to grab and ready to move with her body – going through as many bowstrings as she did was worth it. “Let’s just start with ‘hi’.”

“Hi,” Spider-Man said sullenly. “Now why are you following me?”

“Have you seen any Russian mobsters in track suits, lately? Saying ‘bro’ a lot, maybe wearing those weird Kanye shades?”

Spider-Man’s shoulder relaxed a little as he seemed to realize she just wanted information.

For now.

“Yeah,” he said. “Why?

“Did you see them anywhere other than in or around Bed-Stuy?” she asked hopefully.

“Uh, no, sorry,” Spider-Man said, shaking his head and body-language seeming to express genuine regret. “Again, why?”

“Damn,” Kate said. Well, it had been worth the long-shot, anyway. “Every time I take a few down – guys that look like they might really be in charge – more just keep popping up, and I can’t find wherever they’re working out of. But I’ve heard them mentioning some kind of base, before, enough to be pretty sure they have one.”

“I don’t know anything,” Spider-Man said, shaking his head regretfully. “But I’ll keep an ear out for it.”

“Thanks,” she said sincerely. “I think you can find me much easier than I can find you, so I’ll bug off before someone calls the cops on us.”

She didn’t hear from him until nearly two weeks later, when he dropped in on her right after she pinned a mugger to the wall of an apartment building. He said, “Those guys you were asking about? I don’t know which one or where, but apparently they’re operating out of the basement of an abandoned restaurant in Bed-Stuy, and it’s north of something.”

Kate grinned. A little ways away – close enough to see them but not enough to hear their conversation – the mugger whimpered at the sight. “Thanks,” she said. “I can use that.”

“Do _you_ know what’s going on with all those cops in Hell’s Kitchen?” he asked. She opened her mouth and he quickly added, “You gotta know. You don’t seem superhuman at all, but you never seem to get caught, either.”

“I have a…way of listening in,” she said, deciding not to mention the high-end police scanner that could tap into even encrypted radio channels, and certain phone calls. It had cost her a small fortune and was probably one of the best investments she made to be…whatever she was, now.

“There’s a drug bust going on, and I think it’s not too far from Hell’s Kitchen. They’re trying to throw off the dealers.”

“That explains a lot, actually,” he muttered. “Thanks, uh…do you have a name for yourself, or something?”

“I don’t, not really,” she admitted. “Out of all the names the press has for me, though, I think I like Blackhawk most.”

“Then seeya ‘round, Blackhawk,” he said, and with a few leaps back and forth between the alley walls, he slipped over a rooftop edge and disappeared.

That was how they went for nearly two months. Thanksgiving and Christmas passed by in their usual blur. On New Year’s Eve, she went to Time’s Square as Kate Bishop, but left it as Blackhawk, watching the ball drop from the top of a roof before starting 2015 off by knocking out three muggers for the police and stopping an attempted assault before it could even truly start. She went home and spent the better part of the next morning snickering to herself at all the pictures of Spider-Man slinging around Time Square just after the ball dropped, a pick-pocket webbed to a lamppost in his wake.

It was a surprisingly productive relationship, one even the press caught onto after a few grainy cameraphone pictures of the two of them scrambling up a fire-escape together (they teamed up to chase down the Black Cat – they hadn’t caught her, but they got a hell of a lot closer than anyone else ever managed).

She learned he made his own webshooter things, which explained why Kate hadn’t been able to find them or anything like them for herself. He learned that Kate had over a decade of martial arts training (though Kate kept the fact it was _athletic_ martial arts to herself). And they both learned that the other one had to be home by morning, lest they raise suspicions of someone at home.

Kate didn’t tell him that her ‘suspicious’ person could be paid to keep silent. The maid wasn’t particularly nosy, largely uninterested in Bishop affairs, and as long as Kate never said anything about the occasional missing silverware or tiny, valuable trinket around the house, the maid kept her mouth shut about Kate’s weird hours.

Despite what she learned about Spider-Man, she was more interested in what she _didn’t_ learn.

Kate was curious. She was never going to deny that. She wanted to respect Spider-Man’s privacy, she really did, but the man was so closed off, and she just wanted to know a little bit about him, work with him a bit more, even during the day-time. Maybe they could coordinate, figure out when they could or couldn’t take a few nights off, or maybe share tips and information more smoothly, and resources, and dear god he needed proper combat training soon, and-

Then she sprained her ankle and could barely walk for three weeks, let alone go out crime-fighting.

When she came back, she was still taking things a little slow, so it didn’t take Spider-Man long to find her. He caught her when she was standing on the roof of a German deli, checking her time and location on her phone. He was either just on his way in or just on his way back home, given that he swung down to her rooftop wearing his backpack.

One day, she’d tell him he looked a bit like a ninja-turtle when he wore that thing. One day.

“What happened?” he asked her, lowering his voice as he stood right next to her. It wasn’t exactly crowded up here, but they were both paranoid about people listening in. “You disappeared!”

“Messed up my foot,” she said easily enough, locking the screen.

“You’re okay now, though?” Spider-Man asked.

She just _looked_ at him, and to his credit it only took him a moment to realize what a stupid question that actually was.

She rolled her eyes, tilting her head in such a way as to make her sentiment obvious behind the low-light vision enhancing goggles. The lenses didn’t actually generate their own light, but the outer surface practically shone purple in certain lights, obscuring her eyes and making it hard to focus on the rest of her face.

The rest of her face that wasn’t covered by the white scarf, anyway.

“Look,” she said. “I’ve been thinking – we should talk more. We can get a lot more done if we’re cooperating or working together-”

“-And be in more danger in the process,” Spider-Man said.

“You think I don’t know that?” she said, using her phone to point at him. “I’m saying the risks are worth it!”

His mask shifted in the way that usually meant he was about to open his mouth, but he suddenly jerked a bit to the side and whipped his head around as he heard something.

The movement was so sudden, and he was so damn close to her already, that he didn’t react to _her_ stumbling in surprise, and even bumping into him.

In that moment, she noticed that one of his pockets was still slightly open. She could even see inside it, mostly what looked like a bunch of pens and pencils and a…calculator? Who the hell worked with a calculator? Well, she supposed he was obviously a scientist of some sort…

Regardless, it was an open pocket. Months of curiosity and the universe just gave her a lead.

It was stupid. It was probably one of the stupidest and rudest decisions of her life.

But that didn’t stop her from slipping the only GPS device she had on her into his bag – her phone.

She had it half in when she seemingly shoved herself away from him, pushing it the rest of the way into his bag.

“What the hell was that!” she snapped as he turned around at the touch. “A little warning, next time-”

“I heard something.”

“What, across the street?”

“Yeah, actually,” he said with a shrug.

“This is New York,” she said. “There are lots of people out at night.”

“They sounded kinda like combat boots,” he said.

“A lot of people wear those, too,” she pointed out. “Look, never mind. For starters, you’re gonna want to close your backpack before something falls out…how the hell does nothing fall out, anyway?” she asked, narrowing her eyes at his bag. “Or is there like your actual briefcase or something inside the backpack?”

Weirdly, he just laughed at the thought as he reached around and pulled the zipper closed, saying, “Do you _want_ me to go into a lesson on the physics of inertia, relative gravitational forces, and kinetic motion?”

“Yes, actually,” she said, sounding intrigued. “But, y’know, when we’re not hanging around on a dark rooftop. Have you had combat training?”

He seemed thrown-off by the non-sequitur. “What?”

“Combat training?” she asked. “Because it looks like you mostly depend on your speed and agility to get by, and those are clearly enhancements of some kind.”

“So, what, you want to train me?” he said.

“Yes!” she said. “Why not?”

“Because the more we’re together when we’re not Spider-Man and Blackhawk, the more likely it is we’ll get caught,” he said.

“Look,” Kate continued. “I understand that, I really do. The point I’m trying to make is-”

_Fwoop_

Kate and Spider-Man turned when an arrow embedded itself into the wall beside them.

It had gone almost perfectly between them.

“Uh-oh,” Spider-Man murmured as he and Kate turned as one towards the opposite direction to see.

Clint Barton stood one roof over from them and a story above, another arrow already nocked and pointing just a bit higher than it would take to hit them.

To hit _her_.

“Hawkeye!” Kate couldn’t help but blurt out.

“So you’re the chick who’s been stealing my schtick!” Barton called out, ironic grin visible even from all the way over.

“That was a terrible pun,” Kate murmured under her breath.

“He’s an Avenger,” Spider-Man groaned. “I’m really sorry, but you’re own your own for this.”

She didn’t pay attention to him leaping up and presumably away, keeping her eyes on Barton as Spider-Man left. Barton followed Spider-Man’s movements a bit but only as far as he could keep her in his peripheral vision before turning back to face Kate dead-on.

Or rather, to face _Blackhawk_ dead on.

“Come here often?” Barton called out, his arrow never wavering from its aim right over her head.

“I get the feeling you already know!” Kate shouted back, raising her voice just enough to carry over the broad alleyway and two rooftops, but no more than that. “I don’t suppose there’s any way I could get you to sign my bow _without_ arresting me…?”

“You already know the answer to that, darling,” he said. Kate wondered if she wasn’t supposed to notice the shift in his legs towards a sturdier stance. “Your skills are very impressive, but I doubt they match up to mine. So why don’t you come with me and neither of us waste any arrows?”

“Did you really think that would work?” Kate shouted back, shifting her own feet.

“Not really, but it was worth a shot-”

Kate barely managed to dodge the arrow he let loose, and holy fuck he didn’t even pause to jump from his roof to hers, rolling with the landing and popping up just two dozen yards away from her.

And when he stood, Kate had an arrow nocked and trained on him.

“…are you really going to shoot me?” Clint asked. “You seem to like me quite a bit.”

“Not enough to end up in anyone’s custody,” Kate said. “Besides, I know how to take non-lethal shots. Hell, most of mine barely hurt the guys I go after.”

“Uh-huh,” Clint said. “And if I said we didn’t want to arrest you? That we just wanted to talk to you?”

“I’d call bullshit,” Kate said sincerely. “And ask what gave you the impression that I was so stupid.”

“Is it so hard to believe, wanting to bring in a friendly, well-trained combat operative that doesn’t seem to be working for anyone else?”

“I’ve learned the hard way to run in the other direction when people start saying things that sound too great to be true,” Kate said.

Inexplicably, Barton’s face softened.

“We really do just want to talk to you,” he said.

“That’s nice,” Kate said, and promptly twisted away from him to run to the edge of the roof.

She leapt across three more alleyways, managing to drop down by one floor, her ankles screaming at her in protest of her hasty and haphazard falls. Not a moment too soon, because she heard the sound of an arrow missing her by less than half a foot.

“You can’t run forever!” she heard Barton shout from somewhere behind her.

“Watch me!” she snapped over her shoulder before making another leap - this time onto a building behind her current one. She veered to the side to follow the turn of the block.

“I am!” Barton shouted at her. “And I’ve gotta say, I’m loving the view!”

“Why, Mr. Barton!” she called out, cursing the hint of breathlessness in her voice. “What would your husband say?”

Or was it still fiancé? All she remembered was how seemingly no one cared that SHIELD was rebuilding itself because all anyone could talk about was that it was being headed by a gay guy.

And they say teenagers don’t have their priorities straightened out.

“A lot of things,” Barton said, and he added something else which Kate didn’t hear as she jumped on a Dominoes.

“Well, I’m afraid I can’t condone infidelity,” she called back as she turned on the spot to review her options. “I can do threesomes, though!”

She jumped off the pizza joint just as he jumped on it, and she landed on what might have been a Starbucks. She scrambled up the vents and shafts and used them to jump onto the next building, almost a story higher.

“I’ll let him know!” Barton called out. “But that can only happen if you let us bring you in!”

“Tempting!” she shouted back as she studied her two options at the new corner. One roof would involve some climbing up a fire-escape ladder, leaving her open, but if she could get there, she could make a twist around some elaborate exhaust pipes this place had and get to safety on the other side. The other one she could get right onto, but there would be even more running after.

“Aww, come on!” Barton called out after her. “Just a little chaAAAAHH!”

She risked a glance to see him covered in white webbing, a struggling heap on the ground.

She turned back and leapt, grabbing onto the railing of the fire-escape with her knees bent enough to slam her boots against the bottom edge of the little balcony. She swung over and climbed up, up onto the roof and over. It was only when she was halfway across it that she turned her head enough to look for Spider-Man.

She found him clinging to a building wall three stories above her and across the street. He nodded at her, and she nodded back before continuing across the roof. Thank god, the side-ladder was still there.

She clambered on, gripped the sides loosely in her palms, and slid down two stories all the way to the ground. She hissed at the landing, her all her lower body joints and her fingers smarting from the move, but she kept running. She crossed the street and kept going, slipping between two buildings and sulking in until she hit the back alley, twisting and turning until she was two blocks and three streets over.

There, she stopped to get a breath in and to figure out her location. As soon as she got both, she started moving again, slipping between alleys and darting across streets to cross the city, an urban fractal headed straight for Harlem.

Soon, she hit one of the livelier parts of town and had to stick exclusively to the most desolate alleys possible, slipping between half-asleep homeless people, strung out junkies, and the occasional spot of exhibitionism to make her way towards one of her stashes. She found the small storage building, and leapt up top onto the roof. She pulled out her pocket knife, unfolded the screw-driver, and within moments was lifting off the outer grill of the largest vent shaft.

She was careful in pulling it off, setting it down quietly without tangling her feet in the string tied to it. She used the string to pull up a small but well-padded and well-packed duffel bag, and checking to make sure she was positioned right to have most of the vents, piping, and other tiny rooftop structures around her, she set to changing.

Less than half an hour later, Blackhawk was gone, and Kate Bishop was strutting across the club scene of Harlem, looking for a party.

After all, what else would a spoiled little heiress be up to, being out at this time of night?

~*~

Peter frowned when he found the phone on the floor near his bag. It definitely wasn’t his or Gwen’s. Maybe Aunt May had finally gotten a new phone? But then why was it here? And purple casing didn’t seem like her thing.

It seemed unlikely, but he still picked up his phone and shuffled out of his room. He stood at the top of the staircase and called out, “Aunt May!” towards the sound of sizzling and clanging around downstairs.

“In the kitchen!” she called back. He made his way downstairs and waited until he got her attention, before he held up the phone.

“Is this yours?” he asked, plopping down at the island as she put a pancake on the plate waiting for him. “I found it in my bag, but it isn’t mine or Gwen’s, so…”

Aunt May was already shaking her head. She jerked her chin to her purse as she turned her attention to the bacon. “Mine is already in my bag.”

“Huh,” Peter said, frowning at the phone. “Guess someone must have dropped it, and it landed in my bag?” At the look on Aunt May’s phone, he added, “Would I be showing it to you if I stole it?”

She shrugged, turning her attention back to breakfast. “Seems like a good way to turn around suspicion.”

“First off, no way I would steal a phone from a person off the street,” Peter said, before taking a big bite of his pancake. He grinned. “If I was gonna steal a phone, I’d be smarter about it. Watch a store and grab a shipment, maybe, get a whole box of them.”

“Peter,” Aunt May said in exasperation.

“What?” he asked. “It’s more efficient that way!”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, go online and start asking your friends on Facebook if anyone’s lost a phone like that. And make sure they can prove it if they have! Or else someone may actually steal it.”

“I don’t think any of my friends have a fondness for this particular shade of purple,” Peter muttered, turning his attention back to his breakfast as he tried to unlock the phone.

The encryption on this thing was good, which was unsurprising given how expensive it looked.

He finished his food, cleaned his plate, and was just reaching the top of the stairs when he heard the doorbell ring.

“I’ll get that,” Aunt May said, and Peter wondered if she had a package or something, if someone was coming by this early in the morning day.

He was just about to go into his room when the front door opened, but he ended up standing just inside it, peeking out in shock, when he saw that it _wasn’t_ delivery guy.

Instead, it was a girl. She didn’t look to be much older than Peter, and was dressed in what looked like a private school uniform, plaid skirt and blazer and all.

“Hi,” the girl said. Peter frowned, her voice tugging at his memory somehow. “I lost my phone recently, and the tracking system tells me the phone is here.”

…oh, _no_.

“Oh!” Aunt May said. “Did it have a purple case?”

“Yeah, actually.”

The woman from the rooftop – or, apparently, the girl from the rooftop.

“Have you seen it?” she asked.

 _Blackhawk_.

“Yep. My nephew found it this morning, thought it was mine. He was about to start asking around online if anyone lost it.”

There was no way that phone had been _lost_.

“Peter!” Aunt May shouted up the stairs. “Bring that phone down, the owner tracked it here!”

Peter gripped the phone tightly (but not too tightly) as he started down the stairs.

“I take it this is yours?” he asked, as he held the phone out to her, and not bothering to try and disguise his own voice.

Her eyebrows rose as she, presumably, recognized what she was hearing. However, she gave no other indication of surprise as she took the phone from Peter’s hand. “It is, thanks!”

“No problem,” he said easily enough, mindful of the fact Aunt May was still there. “Saved me the trouble of trying to find out whose phone it actually was.”

“Still,” the girl said. “This phone is worth a lot, and even if you didn’t steal it, you probably could have sold it or something.” She turned a little bit, directly towards Peter and slightly away from Aunt May, and _smirked_ at him. “I’d like to give you a reward for, y’know, not throwing it away.”

“Oh, no, we don’t need that!” Aunt May said, waving the girl off and thankfully oblivious to the tension between her and Peter. “We don’t need a reward to do that right thing,” she called out over her shoulder as she headed towards the kitchen.

“No, you really don’t, do you,” the girl muttered, now raising one eyebrow in amusement at Peter. He glared at her.

“I don’t know what you think you’re doing,” he hissed as low as possible. “But-”

“What was your name?” Aunt May said, head popping in again as Peter smiled genially at them both.

“Kate,” she said. “Kate Bishop.”

"Nice to meet you, Kate," Aunt May said. "I'm May Parker, and you just met Peter. We’re glad to help you get your phone back. I take it you have school, right now – want some coffee before you go?”

“No, thanks,” she said easily enough. “I just wanted to grab my phone real quick before I went to school.”

“All right,” Aunt May said. “But I’ve got a pot on if you want some. You-” Here, she turned to Peter. “Get going, or _you’re_ going to be late for school.”

“I can give you a ride?” Bishop offered. “I have a car. If you won’t take a reward, at least let me make sure you get to school on time.”

Before Peter could decline, Aunt May said, “That would be wonderful! Peter, go get ready, you don’t want to keep her waiting. Thank you, Kate, he’s always running late no matter what I try. Are you sure you won’t run late, yourself?”

“I don’t have a first period,” she said as Peter went up the stairs, scowling at her when Aunt May turned away. “I just like to get to school early so I can get a good parking spot, then I go study in the library.”

Upstairs, Peter quickly went through his backpack, trying to find any bugs or anything else that might be in there, just in case, but unsurprisingly, the phone really had been the only thing in there that hadn’t belonged.

He was such an idiot. He should have seen that coming. He should have-

“Peter!” Aunt May shouted.

“Coming!” Peter shouted back. He quickly changed his clothes, and then made sure to tuck his Spider-Man suit and the webshooters into the detachable bottom, the one that could be pulled off without looking like there was anything missing from the bag’s design.

He was proud of that design, and he desperately hoped he wouldn’t need to use it, today.

“I really can get to school on time, on my own,” Peter said as he came down.

“It’s okay,” she said. “I don’t mind, and it’s a nice day out for a drive.”

“Do you have everything?” Aunt May said. Peter nodded, and she started bustling around again as she called out over her shoulder: “Good! Remember to pick up some extra carrots on your way home, tonight, and don’t forget to text me if you’ll be late. Have a good day!”

Peter waved at her as he headed out, and Kate said, “Good-bye!” as they stepped out the door.

Aunt May had barely gotten out her own good-bye before Peter shut the door.

“…so,” Kate said.

“Not yet,” Peter said, jerking his head towards the neighboring houses. He turned and was about to ask which car was hers, when he saw a bright, purple convertible.

“…really?” he asked.

“Really,” she said seriously, walking straight towards it. They were silent as they hopped in and buckled in, and Peter spared one last glance at his home.

It had been _safe_ until his dumb butt brought that phone in.

As soon as they pulled away, Peter turned to her and said, “Really, Blackhawk? Your _phone_?”

“Well it worked, didn’t it?” she asked, glancing at him with a raised eyebrow before turning her attention back to the road. “And I’ve gotta say, finding out you live with your mom really dulls the shine of tracking down the untraceable Spider-Man.”

“…she’s my aunt,” he grumbled.

“So,” she said as she drove. “Spider-Man lives in Queens, kind of ironic given you seem to spend all your time in Manhattan-”

“Don’t say that kind of stuff outloud!” Peter snapped. “I have enemies, you know.”

“So do I,” Kate said wryly. “I know for a fact that the Russian mob in Bed-Stuy will pay _very_ well for information leading to me.”

“So why do something as risky as using your own phone to track me down?” Peter asked.

“Because I wanted to talk to you,” she said. “Not as Blackhawk to Spider-Man, but Kate Bishop to whoever was under the mask.”

“Why?”

“Mostly, I’m just curious. We’ve been crossing paths and more and more, and I wanted to know who I was crossing paths with. But I also think we could be smarter about what we do…work together, in a way.”

“Work together?” Peter asked dubiously.

Kate nodded. “Like, you’re kind of a tech guy, right, building your own webshooters and stuff? Maybe you can make me some ‘trick arrows’ – obviously, nothing like the actual Hawkeye’s, but hopefully something approaching useful. I can…well, you obviously are very strong, with lots of flexibility and agility. But when it comes to fighting, it’s kinda obvious you’ve never had any formal combat training. I could give you that, train you properly. You would be _so_ much more effective. Seeing as a bunch of old HYDRA people and superpowered criminals keep coming to New York, we’re going to need all the help we can get or give each other as time goes on.”

For two blocks, Peter was silent, mulling over her words.

“There’s someone who helps me,” he said finally. “With being Spider-Man, and stuff. I have to…I’m going to have to ask her what she thinks about all this, if your offer is really worth it.”

Gwen would know what to do – or at least how to decide what to do.

“No problem, I get it,” she said easily. “Does she go to your school? Maybe I can meet her right now.”

Peter reached into his pocket. “I don’t think dropping me off actually at my school is a good idea,” he said, as he unlocked his own phone. “Too many people would start asking the wrong questions.”

Kate nodded. “So where am I dropping you off, then?”

He gave her an intersection two blocks away from his school as he texted Gwen to meet them there.

 _‘Why?’_ she texted back.

_‘Meet w/Blackhawk’_

_‘WHAT’_

_‘Yeah she found me. Shes driving me to school & trying to make a deal & I don’t even know.’_

_‘I’ll meet you there.’_

“She’s meeting us there,” he announced. Then he looked at the time. “Actually, there’s a Starbucks not too far from there…we’ve got time before school starts.”

“And you’d rather you weren’t seen with me,” Kate said.

“Hole in one,” Peter said with a nod, and texted Gwen the new plan.

By the time they got there – Kate didn’t seem remotely concerned by the cost of parking – Gwen was already waiting at a slightly isolated table outside, her own and Peter’s usual coffees waiting, as well as three chairs.

“So,” Gwen said as Peter and Kate walked up to her. “You’re…”

“Hopefully, a new friend,” Kate said. Peter took a chair beside Gwen, and Kate dumped a fancy-looking messenger bag into the seat opposite them. “I’ll go get my drink so we can talk.”

As soon as she was inside the store, Gwen raised an eyebrow at Peter.

“Last night,” Peter started. “We met up, again.”

“Was this before or after Hawkeye was chasing her?” she asked. “Because that’s been all over Facebook, there are nearly a dozen videos of their chase online.”

“Before,” Peter said. “I think that’s when she slipped her phone into my bag. I didn’t see it until this morning – and then she showed up on my doorstep before I could get rid of it.”

Gwen reached out to grasp his hand in her own. “I told you she’d find a way, eventually.”

“Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Peter grumbled.

“What does she want?” Gwen asked.

“For us to work together,” Peter said.

Gwen smiled, and Peter stared at her incredulously. Before he could say anything else, though, Kate came back, a large cup of something steaming hot in her hands.

“So, grumpy-spider,” she said, sitting down and raising a bemused eyebrow at Peter’s scowl. “Are you really still upset about me finding out where you lived? You seem to be overreacting, it’s not like I’m going to-”

“You _ambushed_ me!” Peter snapped. “And after we were pursued by one of the Avengers, too! How did you think I was going to react?”

“Peter!” Gwen hissed, jerking on his wrist. “Voice. Down!”

“Sorry,” Peter mumbled, lowering his voice obligingly.

“Look, I’m sorry,” Kate said. “But I’m not a professional in any capacity. So I’m just using whatever I have, however I can, okay?”

Peter took a deep breath, and felt Gwen squeeze his hand.

“Right, just – I’m not rich, okay? If something happens, the _only_ thing protecting me and the people around me is the fact that no one knows who I am and no one knows how to find me.”

“I’m depending on that, too,” Kate said. “Believe me, I am. If we got arrested, we could be charged with anything from serial assault to _terrorism_.”

Peter could hear Gwen swallow beside him.

“We both have the same goal, and we’re achieving it in the same way. We’re just handling the fallout of it differently,” Kate said.

Peter seemed to deflate a little, and nodded. “Now that you know who I am – what do you want to do?”

“Coordinate,” Kate said. Clearly, she’d been thinking about this for a while. “Spread out so we, together, can cover more area. Practice together – you have more experience, I have more training, between the two of us we’ll work something out. And pooling our resources! I have money, you’re good with tech…”

“I…I can do that,” Peter said. He paused, then turned to Gwen. “What do you think?”

 _Are you okay with this?_ went unsaid rather loudly between them.

“…I like the idea of someone out there watching your back,” Gwen said quietly, before she turned to Kate. “I give Peter medical care whenever he gets hurt out in the field. I can do that for you, too. And it will be easier for me, seeing as you’re actually fully human.”

Kate smiled. “Thanks…I could use that. My ankle is still sore from my bad fall three weeks ago.”

“Really?” Gwen asked in surprise. “But when you ran from Hawkeye just last night-”

“I said sore, not incapacitated,” Kate said.

Gwen sighed. “Great, you two are going to enable each other’s self-destructive habits.”

Kate grinned and Peter rolled his eyes.

“But I’ll help,” Gwen continued. “I promise.”

Peter groaned, and slumped in his chair. He _hated_ group projects.

~*~

Jonas was, by his inherent nature, a creature of logic – but that didn’t mean chaos didn’t have its merits. Predictable chaos was the _best_ , and there was nothing more predictably chaotic than flying.

“Race you!” he heard in his mind, and his facial unit formed into the mold known as a ‘smile’ (purpose: convey joy or amusement to those around oneself).

It was a particularly smug one he bore as he blasted past Iron Man. “Keep up, old man!” he said through their comm link as he tore off.

‘Banter’ was a confusing element, but over the previous four months of interactive communication development, Jonas had come to enjoy it.

And he enjoyed the fact he came to understand ‘banter’ approximately 80% faster than Father had when _he_ started learning.

He was just getting ready to follow the path of a thermal in the most efficient path towards their last checkpoint when a sudden blast to his ankle sent him careening in the opposite direction.

By the time he managed to right himself, Iron Man was nearly three miles ahead.

“That’ll teach you some respect for your elders!” Tony said.

Jonas narrowed his eyes as his adaptive prioritization unit ran _Algorithm: Competitiveness {alt-id #Oh_No_You_Don’t}_. He followed the dictates of the Algorithm _{purpose: pursue victory to reasonable ends despite lack of immediate pay-off}_ and took off after Iron Man, trying to figure out how best to slow him down.

Well, slow him down without simply blasting him out of the sky, anyway. During their test flights, they were never allowed to use their repulsors at strengths greater than 5% _{Primary Purpose: prevent unnecessary damage; Secondary Purpose: promote creativity and least-violent solutions to presented problems}_.

Along with limitations on repulsor blasts, most of his other capabilities were also limited by the rules of their game, and that meant the vast majority of Jonas’ immediate solutions were non-viable.

It took an embarrassingly long time (3.14 seconds!) to figure out what he could do without damaging the suit. He had to wait an additional 2.6 minutes until the lake appeared on the horizon, barely a quarter mile away from their checkpoint. There was less than ten seconds between crossing the lake and the last checkpoint, and Tony was presumably sure of his victory if his barrel-roll-and-salute was anything to go by.

Jonas smiled as Tony finished the turn to face forward again. It was dangerous to make such assumptions of one’s victory.

He counted down the degrees, and as soon as Iron Man was at _just_ the right position, he blasted the water.

5% was all it took for a geyser of water to startle Tony and get him to veer wildly to the side, almost towards Jonas. He was only just righting himself as Jonas flew past him, so Jonas used a much lighter blast – only 4.8% – to send him flailing again.

By the time Tony had righted himself and caught up, Jonas was already hovering over the abandoned air hangar they used as their checkpoint for this region.

He smirked, conveying what he was actually feeling ( _Algorithm: Pride {Purpose: encourage successful habits and practices})_.

“I win,” Jonas said. “My colloquial linguistic development suggests the appropriate phrase here is, ‘I owned you’.”

Tony laughed. “Yes, yes you did.”

Jonas made a note to pursue that particular idiom – Tony wasn’t property, so Jonas never owned him, and he failed to see why victory implied as such. The mild confusion did nothing to temper his _Sub-Algorithm: Joy_ , though, so he merely said, “Shall we fly back home?”

“Sure,” Tony said brightly. “We can tell your dad in person how you did, today. Nice job with the geyser!”

“Thank you,” Jonas said. _Operation: Gratitude_ was a fairly simple procedure that was occasionally redundant, but he didn’t think this was one of those times.

“Anyway,” Tony said. “Let’s take the coastal route so we can-”

Tony abruptly cut himself off, and Jonas felt _Sub-Algorithm: Confusion {severity: mild; alt id #Uh…?}_ begin to process.

“Belay that,” Tony said. “There’s some weird convoy on the other side of Virginia throwing off some weird energy signatures, Coulson wants a fly-over.”

“For a strange convoy?” Jonas asked in confusion. “Just for some energy signatures?”

“A strange convoy throwing off strange energy signatures while headed towards a fairly R&D-oriented research base in the state,” Tony said.

“So what should I do?” Jonas said. “Can I help?”

Tony paused. “It’s just a flyover, kid, we don’t need two-”

“Can I help any other way?” Jonas asked. “I want to help!”

“Why the urgency?” Tony asked, sounding more bemused than anything else.

“Why not?” Jonas countered. “I was made to help you, but no one will let me-”

“That’s because you’re still training, kid,” Tony said.

“What’s the point of training if I never get any practice?” Jonas said, his processing getting increasingly compressed as _Primary Protocol: Assist Iron Man_ ran into _Current Command: Go Home to Safety_.

Again.

He didn’t have an algorithm for frustration, and yet somehow he still felt frustrated. It was a novel experience that he would try to understand at a later time.

Like after he helped Iron Man.

“I want to do what I was made for!” Jonas said.

“And you will,” Tony said. “Eventually. This isn’t an emergency-”

“So you wish for my first experience assisting you to _be_ an emergency?”

Tony sighed. “All right, fine. Fly guard over the base. This is probably nothing, but just in case it is a hostile convoy headed for military research, you can make sure they never reach it.”

On the spot, Jonas could feel a new Algorithm developing. He named it _#Satisfaction {alt id #Finally!}_ as he turned and shot off towards the base.

It wasn’t a particularly long flight – if it had been, Director Coulson _{alt id #Phil alt id #Agent}_ would have sent someone else to take a look. As it was, he was already in position well-above the base when Tony said, “Confirming visual on convoy. They are shielding whatever is in the truck, so I can’t confirm what they’re transporting.”

“I am in position over the research center,” Jonas relayed.

“Hold your position,” Tony instructed, and Jonas complied.

He complied for half an hour, running all of the patience sub-operations he learned from Clint _{alt id #Hawkeye alt id #Agent_Barton}_.

However, those sub-operations were not…extensive. Besides, along with being a creature of logic, he was a creature of productivity.

If it was a hostile convoy, that would mean they had a target in mind. It was highly unlikely they would just come in and target at random – they were here for something, and Jonas had plenty of processing space available at the moment to try and deduce what it would be.

Unfortunately, beyond stating that this was a joint operations base between the United States Air Force and the United States Army, there was very little publicly available about this base. But Jonas was still a Stark, and that never stopped Starks.

It didn’t take him long to crack into some of the more superficial databases, mostly basic functionality and sustainment reports. It would take a lot longer to be able to dig deep enough to figure out what the US Army or the US Air Force was researching here, but given the time frame of the convoy’s estimated arrival, that wasn’t a wise action to take.

However, given that there was nothing to do until the convoy got here, he could still establish a general idea of the research purposes, and what the suspicious convoy may be after. He considered asking Tony for supplemental information, but his activated neural links abruptly reminded him of Father’s suggestion that he try to take on more initiative.

When he noticed the actual energy output, though, he ran _Sub-Algorithm: Confusion {severity: medium; alt id #Huh!?}_.

This base was using nearly triple the amount of energy they were supposed to be using – or claimed to be using. Further digging quickly established why: the actual power taken from the military power grid was exactly as stated, but there appeared to be some additional generators and power sources that were supposed to be years out of function.

When Jonas flew less than two miles over to take a look, the initial visual scan seemed to corroborate the reports. Alternate scans – namely heat and other radiation registers – went completely in the opposite direction.

“I am detecting some form of suspicious activity here at the base,” Jonas said.

“What kind?” Iron Man asked immediately.

“The base is using more energy than they should be, and some generators that are supposed to be nonfunctional appear to be functioning perfectly.”

“Doesn’t sound like anything too problematic,” Iron Man said. “Most likely, they just fixed the generators and the paperwork got backlogged. I’m pretty sure you’ve heard stories on army bureaucracy from, well, everybody by now.”

“No,” Jonas said. “There is something more to this…I am not completely sure what, though. I will investigate-”

“Don’t even think about it!” Iron Man – or really, Tony – snapped. “Not here and not now.”

“The power generators are not in the immediate vicinity of the base, but one-point-six miles away from it,” Jonas said, flying closer. “I should be safe investigating it.”

“Jonas!” Tony snapped.

“Is this not what I am supposed to be doing?” Jonas demanded, then ran his brand new _Sub-Algorithm: Frustration_ at the overly formal speech. He tried to avoid it, but was not always successful. As he flew closer, he said, “I am supposed to take initiative, and investigate things to prevent problems.”

“But you’re still developing,” Tony said. “Training. You need to do those when you’ll be _safe_ , not-”

Jonas didn’t hear anymore, because a loud _BOOM_ , a bright flash, and an incoming mortar cut him off.

Jonas swerved to evade it, just as Tony demanded, “What the hell was that?!”

“Incoming mortar fire,” Jonas said.

“What?! From who?!”

“Uh…” _Sub-Algorithm: Apprehension (severity: severe; alt id#OH SHIT}_ ran as he realized who fired at him. “The United States Army?”

Tony swore violently and colorfully, and Jonas still did not understand the purpose of it, beyond conveying to anyone listening how severe the situation is.

Jonas was the only one listening, and he was currently dodging the second mortar fire, so he didn’t know why Tony would need to convey that to him.

“ _Jonas!_ ”

And now Father was on the line. That was much worse, and Jonas did feel a strong urge to convey to someone just how badly this situation was going for him in particular.

However, everyone listening in already knew that, so obscene language would be redundant.

“J! Thank god,” Tony said. “What the hell are we looking it, JARVIS?”

“Apparently, the US Military is worried about a ‘rogue Iron Man knock-off’ coming in to attack them!” Father snapped. “Jonas, listen to Iron Man and leave the vicinity immediately!”

“But the generators-!” He insisted. “I can get a closer look through the fire-”

“That does not matter,” Father said. “There are civilians nearby and there will likely be publicly available footage of this entire debacle online before the top of the hour. Get out! Get out _now_!”

“They truck got in, anyway, so it’s not a threat,” Tony said, just as Iron Man appeared in Jonas’ vision. “And now the entire compound has seen us both and is scrambling soldiers.”

“But-”

“We’re done, here,” Tony said. It didn’t take Jonas’ emotional recognition software to detect how cold Tony’s voice was. “We’re leaving. Now.”

Taking one last look at the aberrational power sources, Jonas turned to Tony and nodded. “Yes, Tony.”

“We will speak when you are at home,” Father said, before cutting their connection with a nearly audible surge of negative data.

So much for initiative.

~*~

Cassie tried cooperating, she really did. She knew she was cooperating with super-Nazis, but they were super-Nazis controlling her entire life and holding her hostage and she couldn’t just _fight_ all the time.

No matter how much she wanted to. She wanted nothing more to punch them all in the face and literally bust her way out of here, but her body still shrieked in remembered pain from when she’s actually tried that.

Cassie had to be _smart_ about getting out of here. And if that meant cooperating with them so she had more energy saved up, so be it.

Given how much they cut back her food in relation to how much she needed it, she needed all the help she could get. Technically speaking, they were giving her the perfectly acceptable amount of calories for the average teenage girl.

Unfortunately, she was no longer an average teenage girl. Apart from a few rare instances of above-and-beyond cooperation, she was always at least a little hungry, if not starving, and every time they gave her a little extra, she ended up regretting it.

Not the food – the cooperating, the playing nice and abiding by their rules.

Today, however, was not one of those days. She ran on their stupid, souped-up treadmill, then she adjusted her size to exact measures while standing on that scale or that big BMI thing, and fought down the strong urge to spit at them or smack the next scientist who touched her without warning, even if it was just to replace one of those stupid monitoring nodes.

Today, it was also pointless, because they were barely halfway through the usual routine when abruptly, alarms started sounding. The scientists would continue working, though, until told otherwise by the guards, who were all muttering into their radios and amongst themselves.

In all honesty, Cassie hadn’t actually expected their routine to be interrupted. But halfway through the alarms, the guards started shouting in alarm about-

About someone _getting out_.

Cassie actually stopped her size change when she heard that.

It was a stupid move, but for a moment, just a moment, if someone else could get out-

They must’ve had the same thought. Just as she was getting ready to change her size again, as fast as possible, the shackles contracted, and she cried out at how did on her arm they were.

“Come down, Lang,” the scientist said – from around her hip, because she was twice his size, and it would be so, so easy to just kick him into a wall, shatter every bone in his body and everyone else’s…

…right up until they ran a cocktail of electricity and sedatives through her shackles and she woke up naked and shivering in her cell. Again.

Glaring at him as coldly as she could, she shrunk down.

And then, just because she could, she spat in his face.

(It hurt, but the punch to the face she got was totally worth it.)

~*~


	3. Teenagers

~*~

Phil watched as Iron Man disassembled, peeling apart to reveal Tony Stark underneath.

Stark started walking down the little airdock, and the kid followed suit right after.

But this time, there was no disassembling. Instead, the green, purple, and gold ‘suit’ seemed to fade into skin tones like a chameleon, the ‘shell’ loosening and softening like a sagging, living skin, changing shape as it went. Similarly, the top of his head seemed to rise and splinter, into hundreds of thousands of fiber-optic strings, also changing color from green into their clear default, before darkening into brown, almost black but not quite.

Where Iron Lad had landed, a teenage boy named Jonas Vision stepped forward. Looking like the lovechild of Paul Bethany and Robert Downey Jr and dressed in typically-tight teenage apparel, he could’ve been any teenager in the world as he stalked into the Stark Tower penthouse.

Of course, he was anything but.

“What,” JARVIS asked coldly, voice as chilling as Natasha’s at her most enraged. “Were you thinking?!”

“It was just a flight-“

“You were circling a military research base!” JARVIS snapped.

“You weren’t supposed to be out flying in that close,” Phil said. “If they were close enough to see you-”

“They nearly shot you down!” Tony cried out. “Do you realize how lucky you are that I was able to call the army guys off when they called me to ask if I knew anything about that suit flying over them?”

“It’s not like they _would_ have been able to shoot me down if they tried,” Jonas said.

“You don’t know that for sure,” Phil said sharply.

Tony crossed his arms as he towered before Jonas. “You can’t just take risks like that-”

“You take irrational risks all the time!” Jonas said. “And you’re human, you’re much more vulnerable than I am-”

“First off,” Tony said with an exasperated glare. “I have training and experience.”

“Additionally, his humanity provides an advantage that you have nothing truly comparable to,” JARVIS said. “His suits can take immense damage because they are, in a manner, expendable. He can easily take one off if he needs to heal, or put on another one if he is truly needed. You, on the other hand, have only a single robotic body to utilize. If this gets damaged, you cannot simply ‘step out’ as repairs are commenced. And if it is destroyed, it could take months to create a new body, and even then the only memory left would be back-up drives that would only marginally compare to _you_ and who you are as a person!”

JARVIS was largely an even-mannered personality, but like any parent anywhere, his son brought out the best and worst in him…and the best and worst of Stark’s extensive emotive programming.

“I just wanted to get a closer look,” Jonas said, voice lowering as he backed up a step. Tony, recognizing the gesture for what it was, turned and leaned his hip against the couch, giving Jonas more space.

“Why?” Tony asked.

“Because I saw an aberration in their energy usage-”

“At which point you should have brought it to our immediate attention,” JARVIS said. “So that we can teach you what it means.”

“…you’re the one who said I should take more initiative,” Jonas shot towards Tony.

“Not that much initiative, kid,” Tony said.

Jonas looked down at his feet and refused to say any more.

The kid’s outer appearance was comprised of a complex series biophotonic microcrystal layers, a sheath of scales for his tough and protective skin, hanging micro-threads of it for hair-come-environmental-sensors, and woven fibers that could blend into his ‘skin’ or hang away as thin, tight clothing, the colors and densities changing based on the currents of power and data the kid sent through them. Combined with the layer of Exremis-computerized gel that he could excrete or absorb at will between his internal structures – the Iron Lad ‘skeleton’ and his ‘skin’ – giving him a fleshy look when it wasn’t armor, the boy looked inescapably like a real, human teenager. Maybe a human teenager that just stepped off a movie set and a little too perfect if you looked closely, but a real one nonetheless.

Especially with that kind of glower on his face.

One day, Phil would remember to be disconcerted by how lifelike this _robot_ was. Right now, Phil just spared a moment to consider sending his mother an apology wine if he was anything like this when he was a teenager before saying to his godson, “We were all worried about you. We can’t protect you as well as we may have been able to, once upon a time.”

“I’m sorry,” Jonas said, sincerity in his voice but a stubborn set to his chin.

Even if he was a creation almost purely from JARVIS, he was still very much a Stark.

“We accept your apology,” Tony said.

“But you are still grounded,” JARVIS added.

Jonas’ head snapped up to stare at the multi-sensory receptors in the ceiling that were as close to eyes as JARVIS really got inside the tower. “What?! You can’t do that!”

“I think you will find that we can,” JARVIS said. “Until you learn better.”

“This is for your own protection,” Phil said.

“How is this _protecting_ me?” Jonas asked bitterly.

“Because you are not human,” Tony said, his voice abruptly going from angry to despondent. “You and your dad are _people_ , but you are not human. If people find out who and what you are, I can’t guarantee that they won’t try to have you destroyed, under the assumption that you are a machine, with no soul or mind or heart or anything to care about, nothing ‘important’ to be destroyed.”

“If worst comes to worst, we will do everything possible to protect you,” Phil said. “But people aren’t the most trustful of us after the fall of HYDRA. They hear we put a sentient AI into a flying android and they think they’re dealing with Project Insight 2.0 – _especially_ if it comes out that you were made by another AI, for a primarily militaristic purpose.”

“But I’m not a military AI!” Jonas snapped.

“That would be largely irrelevant,” JARVIS said. “The public would be distrustful of the fact that I, a ‘computer program’, were even capable of having motives. Once they find out what those motives originally were…”

“People would rush to have you both destroyed,” Tony said. “And I can throw a lot of money and power into protecting you, or at least making sure you two can never be found if I can’t. But we’re strapped tight for resources and public trust. That’s just not a fight we can afford to take, right now.”

“That unregistered flight you were doing was dangerous-” JARVIS said.

“You do dangerous stuff all the time!”

“Which is exactly why we don’t want you hurt!” Tony snapped.

“So I’m just supposed to stand back and let you coddle me while you go out there and get hurt all the time?” Jonas said, taking a desperate step back.

It was a posture from Tony that Phil recognized all too well. Unique to Jonas, though, was how much more he slipped into natural-sounding idioms when he was emotional.

“I think he’s had enough,” Phil said, looking between Tony and the ceiling. JARVIS’ whir fell quiet as Tony and Jonas turned to look at Phil.

“Stark, JARVIS – how about I handle this for now? I think Jonas could use some outside-the-family perspective.”

A typical pause, before Tony nodded gruffly as he turned away.

Then a digital sigh.

“Thank you,” Phil said. Technological or biological, Stark stubbornness was Stark stubbornness that Phil would always prefer to avoid. “Please engage privacy settings in the elevator for us for the next ten minutes or so. Jonas – you’re coming with me.”

He turned sharply on his heel and went to the elevator, Jonas stalking after him as Tony grumbled under his breath. They stopped only for Phil to drop off his tablet and grab his phone and wallet from his apartment, before they descended to the ground floor.

The elevator ride was monotonous and slow, having to function without JARVIS. But the ploy was already starting to work, Jonas going still in robotic calm as they descended dozens and dozens of floors.

Once they hit the lobby, Phil wove along the side, Jonas quietly padding along behind him. No matter what shoes his feet were currently structured to look like, his footsteps always sounded like a robot wearing fuzzy slippers – which he essentially was.

They headed out the public front doors and turned down the street, going over a block or two until they hit the Avengers’ unofficial café hangout. Once there, they both ordered coffees, Jonas grabbing something with a ridiculous amount of whipped cream to play with as he didn’t drink his coffee, Phil ordering his usual afternoon black.

Once they’d gotten their drinks – and in Phil’s case, added in the milk and sugar – and sat down, it took only a moment before Jonas said, “I was just trying to get a closer look! I saw something unusual and wanted to pursue it. Isn’t that what being human means? That’s what Father says.”

Jonas was mostly modulated to talk like a typical American teenager, but every now and then one of JARVIS’ mannerisms would slip through. The contrast was disconcerting, but an effect Phil was used to.

“I can fly as well as Tony,” Jonas said sullenly – a distinctively teenage attitude made all the moreso by his particularly un-teenage posture. “I’m almost as well-armed as him. And I’m not – if something happens to him, to his body, there is no back-up. But there’s a back-up of me. So I’m less vulnerable in the long run.” He looked up from where he was using a straw to poke at the whipped cream. “So why is it whenever there’s danger, I have to stay here at home while you all go running off around the world? I want to help!”

“And we respect that. Or at least I do,” Phil said, keeping his voice low. While he wasn’t that well-known, people still recognized him – or at least recognized ‘Hawkeye’s Husband’ – and the last thing he needed was anyone listening in just for a news scoop. “But the thing is, you still have a lot to learn about functioning in the real world, and today was a good example of that.”

“Was I too human or not human enough?” Jonas asked. “I can never tell.”

“Trying to measure yourself by how human you are isn’t really the best way to go about it,” Phil said. “We do our best to measure you by your maturity, your wits, intelligence – in relation to the fact your mind is literally a computer – and, well, being an adult. It’s not about how human you are all, it’s just growing up.”

“That…is very vague and unhelpful,” Jonas said, prodding his whipped cream into a tower. “Could you specify?”

“Not really. That’s part of the process – figuring that out for yourself.”

Jonas glared at him, and Phil had to admire the realistic liquidity of his eyes. If Phil didn’t know to look for it, he would never realize the boy’s eyes were micromechanics and synthetic pseudo-biology at play.

“I was a wreck at your age,” Phil began.

“I’m four months old. You were in _diapers_ at my age.” Jonas shuddered. “One upside to being a machine, no biological… _functions_.”

“You know what I mean,” Phil said sternly, before shaking his head. Just as bitchy as his father and irreverent as his grandfather. “The world is a complicated. That’s why we want you to stay away from those – focus on maturing as yourself, on functioning like an adult before going beyond. And please, try to do it safely – we all care about you, and we want you to live long enough to meet your full potential. That may not be long, compared to humans, but it’s still a lot of time you need to figure out the world. Whether you’re going by your chronological age or simulated one…even most sixteen-year-olds aren’t up for this sort of thing, forget four-month-olds.”

Jonas sighed, which mostly meant slumping over a little, seeing as he didn’t actually breathe. For a few moments, they sat in silence. When Phil’s coffee was done, Jonas knocked his whipped-cream structure off his drink and pushed it to Phil, taking Phil’s cup for his own as Phil drank for the two of them.

“This sucks,” Jonas said finally, putting his head into his arms. Phil just patted his back with a fond smile.

~*~

The problem with superspeed was that it didn’t actually give Tommy the ability to fly – which meant he still had to watch where he was running, which was really damn hard when half the time the ground looked like a giant blur.

It also meant that, at his speed, tripping into a tree root could break bone. It probably would have, if it hadn’t been for those stupid bone-treatment nightmares.

Literally. He still got nightmares. A year in prison had nothing on those few weeks of his entire skeleton feeling like it was burning up from the inside.

Even now, sprawled across the ground and spitting dirt out of his mouth, he still wasn’t sure it was worth it. Well, in a way it was – it meant he could just get back up and keep running, running, running to the nearest big-enough town or small city, and find help for Billy and the others.

But he would prefer that none of them had needed the help, in the first.

“Fan-fucking-tastic,” he said, looking down at the stolen boots on his feet. A couple sizes too big, he’d stuffed them with shreds of the original owner’s jacket, and combined with extra tight lacing and two pairs of socks, it was manageable. Mostly.

This plan hadn’t been thought-out well. Hell, it hadn’t been thought-out at all – all he’d known was that something was going on above ground that started to freak out all the scientists and soldiers, making them all convinced they were being attacked. They’d stopped the day’s tests halfway through and started herding Tommy and the others back to their cells.

He still didn’t know what it had been – just that it had been enough to send most of the soldiers above-ground. Tommy guessed they’d gotten complacent.

They wouldn’t be complacent after today.

He was tired. He was tired, he was hungry, and he wanted to stop and take a nap. He must have run almost twenty miles in the last ten minutes, and it was further and faster than he’d ever run before and he was _tired_ and just a few minutes, just until he could feel his limbs and the shaking stopped-

He stared at another tree a few yards away, struggling to even turn his head. The others would be paying the price for him running. _Billy_ would be paying the price. He couldn’t just lay here while they were starved or electrocuted or…or.

Tommy swallowed and shut his eyes. Taking a deep breath, he pulled his right arm in until his hand was under his chest. Another breath, then his left arm. Another two breaths, and he got his knees under him.

“Great, Shepherd,” he muttered to himself. “Now you can _crawl_ all the way over to…wherever.”

He had to get to a big town at least, or a city. Or at least somewhere he could steal some clothes, and a phone or something.

He couldn’t call the Kaplans – they would want to help their foster kids, but…Tommy had no illusions about who he was dealing with. He’d seen for himself just how deep HYDRA had gotten into SHIELD, and that was _before_ Captain America had gone and ripped them both to shreds.

SHIELD was almost gone. HYDRA wasn’t, not nearly as decimated. Tommy needed to find help, but he knew he had to be careful about just who he asked.

But first – he needed to not look like the runaway or convict he technically was. He needed to get some newspapers or find an Internet café or something, figure out what was going on in the world to figure out where to even _start_ asking for help.

He wasn’t sure how long he just rested on all fours, staring at the patch of dirt in front of him. It could have been five minutes, it could have been hours.

But he did notice when he limbs stopped shaking. Superspeed was all well and good, but it took a lot of energy – and he just used up possibly more than he’d actually had. It took energy and it wasn’t sustainable. His longest record before now was eight and a half minutes.

Running to keep your twin brother from getting tased was good motivation. Running for your life worked even better.

When the shaking died down until he was sure he wouldn’t fall over just by standing up, he slowly pushed himself up to his feet. He stood, stayed standing, and slowly put one foot in front of the other.

He’d seen lights in this direction, earlier. Just had to keep going. Keep going. Until he found the house or town or whatever it was. Rest a little, snag some food – he’d take it from a dumpster if he had to, though hopefully there would be somewhere to easily steal it from. Without needing his superspeed – he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t pass out if he tried again before he ate something.

There was a reason HYDRA had given them all so little food the entire time they’d been there.

“One foot at a time, Tommy,” he muttered to himself, doing exactly that. He was going to have to walk the rest of the way, and walk slow as hell, but at least it was still movement towards a goal. At this point, he’d take what he could get. “One foot at a time.”

~*~

It was almost time to go home.

Kate had stopped a mugging in process, and more importantly managed to talk some drunk gangsters away from robbing a store, and she was already tired and had a midterm coming up. Walking down the street, she didn’t think she would be getting much done, tonight.

So, of course, that was right when a voice behind her said, “You smell nice. Like lilacs.”

She whipped around, but whoever it was managed to stay at her back as they said, “Are you out on a date?”

That voice-

And the arm suddenly grabbed one of her own and twisted it up behind her.

She could feel the guy – no, not the guy, she knew that voice – was protecting his side, so she kicked at the inside of his knee and dropped her weight at the same time. As he went down, she hooked her ankle behind his knee and managed to twist them both so she landed on him when they slammed into the ground.

He let go, howling in pain but not agony, and Kate managed to dart a few steps away and turn around to face her attacker.

To face Hawkeye dead on.

“Ha,” he muttered, eyes focused on her feet and hands. “Good.”

“Since when does a superhero stalk women at night?” she said. Before he could come up with something witty, though, she was already feinting forward, then using the misdirecting to lend a sharp blow from her elbow to his midsection, and managed to leap up to wrap half her body around his neck and drag him down backward. He shifted his weight to try and slam her in the ground, but he only managed to really hit her arm – she dodged the rest, and he was still scrambling up as she turned and ran, straight into an alley and taking the first turn she could find that she was sure wouldn’t end in a dead end.

So, of course, it did. Luckily, it was a dead-end next to a building with a fire-escape, and it was no problem to scramble up the damn thing and get onto a roof, then drop back down to another alley.

If she needed proof that he had help from someone else – SHIELD or Avengers or both – the fact that he was waiting for her when she landed was it.

She immediately struck out, just throwing a solid but well-aimed punch, and he dodged but he looked like it took effort to dodge, and she would take that as a win when going up against an Avenger.

“Nice work!” Hawkeye said, which – what? “Aggressive, but controlled.”

“I’ll show you aggressive,” she growled, twisting and landing one of her strongest kicks right on his shoulder.

Pull a bowstring was going to suck for him for a while.

He stumbled, but shot right back at her, and Kate couldn’t completely dodge the blow of the side of his palm as it hit her own shoulder – apparently, this was going to be tit for tat.

“You still haven’t answer my question,” Kate snapped as she reeled from the blow, fighting the urge to rub her shoulder and instead hooking her ankle around his kneed to pull him down.

Down he went, but he also managed to grab her wrist and twist her down with him.

And slapped some handcuffs on the wrist in her grip.

“I wanted to see your work up close and firsthand,” he said, tightening it as she tried to pull away. “No filters, no drills-”

She didn’t let him finish, bringing her knee up into his sternum, a palm to his neck, and her own shoulder to his head. More out of pettiness than effectiveness, though, she smacked him in the face with the dangling handcuff, too.

It still took a damn good portion of her strength to twist her side out of his grip, but she managed it, and was two steps away when she felt one of his ridiculous strong arms wrap right around her throat, and, no-

No-

NO.

It was a moment. It was just one stupid moment where she remembered the first time someone had done that, just wrapped an arm around her neck and dragged her away, somewhere dark and secluded, just like the alley she and Barton were already in, and-

No.

She practically howled with rage, and she knew she sounded feral but she didn’t even care anymore as she slammed her head back up against his nose. When that didn’t work, she went limp and let her weight dead drop, surprising him enough that she could pull off elbowing him on both sides at the same time, and using that to lift up her lower body over her head to kick him in the head. It was only into the top of his head, but it was enough for his grip on her to loosen, and Kate didn’t even remember how she got out of that, beyond a sharp pain in her wrist from where he tugged on the handcuff that was there.

She managed to get him off her with bizarre, adrenaline-and-fear fuelled ease and made her break. Some small part of her wanted to stay, wanted to fight and play hard to get because baiting an Avenger was fun, especially since it was _Hawkeye_.

The rest of her, though, wanted her gone, gone, _gone_ from here and now before she ended up somewhere and some- _when_ else entirely.

She went down the side street and through an alley, then a parking garage and another alley and ducking into a little hole in the wall behind a dumpster, the godawful smell doing little to help her mental state but at least not making it worse, either.

Kate could almost feel her throat choking up against the memories and the stench around her as she kicked her bow under the dumpster before finally being able to tuck herself into the little hollow in the bricks, her body wrapped around her quiver.

She barely managed to press her face into the modified leather of her kit before she was shaking with unsuppressed sobs. The free-hanging end of the cuffs clattered against the brick wall inches from her nose as she shook and tried to separate the hands of tonight from overwhelming memory of hands from more than a year ago.

Her body, unfortunately, didn’t care about the difference.

She didn't know how long she sat there, stifling her sobs and trying to control her whimpering, but her body ached and her ass was numb by the time her breathing was back to normal.

Once she managed to stop hiccupping, she reached under the dumpster to feel for her bow without touching the ground. Unwilling to grope around when she didn't bump into it, she pulled out the penlight from her belt and clicked it on to peer underneath.

Her bow was gone.

Before she could think or even process that it was gone, that it _wasn’t where she left it_ , she heard a voice pipe up from the other side of the dumpster and say, “Looking for something?”

Kate closed her eyes in despair, and clicked off the penlight.

“How’d you find me?” she asked as she put the light away back in her belt.

"You shoulda ditched the handcuffs," Hawkeye said.

Kate looked down at her wrist.

Of course. This was SHIELD. Just because they _looked_ like regular handcuffs didn't mean they actually _were_.

"C'mon out," Hawkeye said. "Because we've got you surrounded."

"That's not exactly an incentive," Kate said, but she slid the strap around until the quiver was firmly at her back again, and slowly she slipped through the crack between dumpster and brick, until she was out again.

Clint Barton sat crosslegged on the floor across the wide alley, her bow in his lap. His own bow, and his quiver, were missing. She noted, dimly, that he’d spread out some newspaper before sitting down.

"That was one hell of a panic attack, there," Barton said conversationally, leaning back against the wall.

"I don't know what you're-"

" _Please_ ," Barton said with a snort. "I know PTSD when I hear it." He paused. "Had enough of my own over the years."

"I'm sure," Kate said neutrally.

Barton just nodded at her.

"Now, like I said, we're surrounded. But so long as we both stay here quietly, they won't close in until my say so. You bolt, you’ll get a repeat of about half an hour ago, and believe me, the last thing you on the heels of one panic attack is _another_ panic attack. These things don't just happen one after another, they happen on top of each other, compounding. Not good – especially when you're still in the middle of a fight."

She stayed silent.

"I give the word, a car pulls up at the end of the alley. You and I hustle into it, and we head back to base to talk. You run, you get dogpiled, sedated, and you wake up strapped to a gurney in our base, and while it will probably still happen, I can't actually guarantee any talking from there."

She stared, before glancing back down the alley. There was an agent there, a young black man not trying to look threatening, but still looking ready for a fight. Looking up, on the roof by the fire escape, she saw an older and deadly looking Asian woman waiting.

And Barton had her _bow_.

She slowly turned back to Barton, and then shuddered as she suppressed a slightly hysterical laugh when she saw the _hopeful_ look in his eyes.

"Fine," she said, tightening her core to keep all the laughter and sobbing from bubbling up and out. "I'll…I'll come quietly."

He actually grinned.

Barton turned to face some kind of comm device on his shoulder and said, "You heard her, Phil."

"Phil?" Kate asked curiously. "As in Phil Coulson?"

Barton's smile was a little softer this time. "Yeah. He said 'no' to the threesome, by the way."

"Damn," she deadpanned, and a car pulled up to the alley mouth, blocking the way to the street.

"I'm supposed to handcuff myself to you," Barton said. "I'd rather just take your hand."

"With your husband watching?" Kate asked dryly, raising a sardonic eyebrow.

"He's very understanding," Clint said with a far-too-nonchalant shrug.

"I'd rather walk on my own," she said. "My exits are blocked or useless and you have my bow. The only things I would do, I could even if you were holding on to me."

Barton narrowed his eyes at her but nodded, getting up and gesturing towards the car with her bow.

When she looked over, the back door of the car was open and she could see a nice pair of shoes that seemed to be attached to someone in a backwards-facing seat.

Right.

She always expected this sort of thing would be a slow march, but it actually felt like one step to the next, and with the one after she was sitting across from _Director Coulson_ , who was holding a tablet but not looking at it, openly studying her with a blank expression on his face. Barton clambered in behind her, shutting the door. Through the window, she saw the other agents climb into the front of the car, but inside there was a divider blocking them off from her view.

The car started moving, street light coming in through the tinted-windows and moving over them in waves. A moment later the internal light came on, though Kate couldn’t see either Barton or Coulson give a command.

Coulson gave Barton a key, which he used to reach over and unlock the cuff around her wrist. “Sorry about that,” he said, gesturing with his chin to her already reddened skin underneath where the cuff had been. There would be some nasty bruises that would take forever to cover up.

If she was still able to cover up. Maybe she’d just be in jail by tomorrow morning.

Barton gave the key and handcuffs over to the Director, who tucked them into a pocket inside his jacket without looking away from Kate. Then Barton just sat back in his seat, her bow still in his lap as he looked at Kate appraisingly.

At least he was treating her bow nicely.

“Are you going to take off those glasses yourself, or will we have to pull them off?” Coulson finally asked.

Kate hesitated, but mostly due to force of habit. She was in the car and her most important weapon was in their hands. She had no leverage and she knew it.

She pulled off the glasses and pulled down her scarf, and with that her hair started to fall loose, too.

It was funny how proportional Barton’s eyes’ widened in relation to Coulson’s eyes’ narrowing.

“Jesus fucking Christ,” Barton said. “How old are you?”

“Old enough to be out at night,” Kate said.

“You seem familiar,” Coulson said. Barton looked at him in surprise.

“You’ve probably seen me in a tabloid or two,” she said, and now Barton was looking between her and Coulson in confusion.

“That will make finding your identity easier,” Coulson said. “Of course, the easiest would be for you to give me your name.”

She swallowed, and it took two tries to get, “Katherine Bishop” out between her lips.

Coulson started typing and the silence was hilariously awkward for a few minutes as he looked her up. Then Barton was staring incredulously between the screen and her.

“Old enough to be out at night?!” he said. “You’re barely old enough to drive!”

“And yet I _am_ old enough to drive. I even have a license. And a car.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Barton said, turning to Coulson. “You’ve been making me chase jailbait this whole time!”

“I’m legal,” Kate said, to which Barton shook his head ruefully. “At least in New York. I’m pretty sure the age of consent here is sixteen-”

“Which you weren’t when you filed a sexual assault report with the police about thirteen months ago,” Coulson said.

Barton abruptly sobered, looking at the tablet screen, then back at her. For a moment, the silence was broken only by all of them shifting their weight on the synthetic leather seats as the car made a turn.

“Sealed files my ass,” Kate muttered finally, and clenched her fists against the sudden desire to hug herself in the face of their scrutiny.

“I take it that’s behind your panic attack?” Barton asked, gesturing towards the screen with a free hand.

“What’s it to you?” Kate asked.

“Oh, I don’t know, being a little concerned that a kid got raped and responded by putting on a fancy outfit and becoming a night-flying vigilante?” Barton said.

“…concerned?” Kate asked, latching onto the first word her brain could process.

“Best word for it,” Barton said. “I mean – seriously, if this entire thing you’re doing is just an overblown coping method, well, I can’t fault you for a new and creative way to handle PTSD but-”

“I’ve saved lives,” Kate said bluntly. “Maybe not as much as you have, or even as much as you _could_ in my position. But I have. I’ve saved lives, I’ve saved livelihoods, I’ve saved people’s wallets, and I’ve saved people’s bodily autonomy and reputations. Overreaction or not, I’m not just ‘running around in a fancy outfit’ to blow off steam. I’m _doing_ something, and I know how to do it right.”

Barton slowly smiled.

“Good to hear,” he said.

“Though this does change a few things,” Coulson said, looking pained as he moved things around on his screen.

“What things?” she asked. “What could this possibly change?”

“We were thinking of hiring you,” Barton said. Coulson glared at him for revealing that, then turned to face Kate.

“But you’re a minor. That…complicates things. Legally speaking, even _training_ you is complicated, let alone getting you involved in our operations like we’d been hoping.”

“About that,” Barton said. “Your…skills. Where’d you get that kind of training?”

“What, your Super Secret Agent file doesn’t list my martial arts trophies? I’ve got nearly a decade of those under my belt. Literally, on the wall in my room, the belts are mounted above the trophies.”

Barton smirked. “Still – athletic martial arts and combat proficiency are two different things.”

“Some self-defense classes here, some self-teaching there,” Kate said. “And rounding up every guy I’ve ever pissed off by beating them in a match and telling them to fight me _without_ the rules.”

“Seriously?” Barton asked.

“Then I just picked it up as I went,” Kate finished, ignoring Barton.

“Picked it up as you went,” Barton said slowly, before shaking his head with a small smile on his face. “Well, I suppose that’s one way to do it.”

“It was the only way for me to do it without drawing too much attention to myself.”

“And telling a bunch of angry boys to beat the shit of out you isn’t calling attention to yourself?”

“I’m competitive,” she said. “And it wasn’t long before I was winning. It was attention, but not that much, and not from anyone important.”

“Not even your parents?” Barton asked pointedly.

Kate just snorted.

“My mom’s been dead for years and my dad’s never around to notice anything. How else do you think I managed to pull this off in the first place?”

Barton’s lips twisted wryly at that.

“Miss Bishop-”

“Ms.”

“Ms. Bishop,” Coulson said, and to his credit he made the correction smoothly. “We are not interested in pressing charges against you for vigilantism. The New York Police Department, on the other hand, is.”

Kate tightened her jaw and lips. She knew a threat when she saw one.

“What do you want me to do?”

“Like I said, now that we know who you are, it’s a little complicated,” Coulson said. “If you were an adult, we’d just hire you right off the bat. But you are a minor, well-known with an influential family who would be very concerned once they noticed you were missing, even if it took them a while. And once upon a time, we might have been able to work around that, but the way SHIELD stands today, that’s not an option for us, anymore.”

“What _will_ happen, then?” she said. “Because from the sounds of it, it’d be most convenient for you to just dump me in juvie for a while, if not forever. And I don’t have anything else to offer.”

“You can give us Spider-Man,” Coulson said calmly. “As much as we want well-trained combat operatives in our agency, we want to keep close tabs on anyone with physiological enhancements even more. Spider-Man is both.”

“Well, I don’t have anything to offer, because we don’t share.”

“Really?” Clint asked.

“He’s paranoid as hell, and so am I,” she said. “We don’t share except as much as we have to, and where we live, our secret identities? Not even close to that.”

“Uh-huh,” Barton said disbelievingly. “Listen, we’re almost at HQ – why don’t we save the rest of this conversation for when we’re inside.

Kate looked out the window. They were barely a block away from Stark Tower.

“Sure,” Kate said. “It’s not like I get any choice in this, anyway, right?”

“You will,” Barton said.

That wasn’t comforting at all.

~*~


	4. Chit-Chat

~*~

“Jesus Christ, how old are you?”

Never let it be said Tony Stark was known for his tact.

Tony’s outburst hung in the air of the conference room, almost dead center of Stark Tower. Blackhawk defiantly didn’t shrink back from Stark’s question, merely continued to sit straight in her seat.

Natasha had to give her credit. There weren’t many people in the world who could face the scrutiny of all the Avengers and several SHIELD agents, let alone teenagers. She sat at the head of the table, while the rest of them stood around it with dubious expressions.

A moment after Tony’s outburst, the girl’s file was splashed across the big screen behind her, and half the people in the room swore at what they saw.

“You’re barely old enough to drive,” Bruce said carefully. “Why are you out-”

“Why not?” the girl – Bishop – immediately challenged. “I’m not…look, I’m not just some starry-eyed fangirl who’s trying to copy you guys – I’ve met enough of them to know the difference. I know what I’m doing, I’ve helped people-”

“You’ve broken a slew of laws,” Phil began.

“And what the hell have you guys been doing since the Battle of New York?” Bishop said.

Natasha couldn’t help but smirk. She liked this girl, already.

Didn’t mean she’d let Bishop keep working as Blackhawk, but she still liked her.

“So what are you going to do to me?” Bishop said. “Just – you’ve captured me, fine, whatever you’re doing, can we get it over with?”

Natasha and Clint shared a look, as did Thor and Steve.

“It’s not that simple,” Phil said. “We were getting ready to hire you-”

“You mentioned,” Bishop said sardonically. She leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms, looking like she was one step away from propping her feet up on the table.

Natasha could still see the girl’s nervousness and desperation underneath it, but Bishop sure put on a good act. But then, that seemed to be her repertoire. She was barely a D-list celebrity, but she still had some gossip rag blurbs and photos to her name, so Natasha supposed she wasn’t too surprised.

Even now that they’ve pulled off her scarf and low-light glasses, Blackhawk was nearly unrecognizable as the wild-child party girl from the photos. The difference was certainly impressive.

“Listen,” Steve said, taking a seat. He gestured for them all – the Avengers, Phil, and Skye – to do the same. “You have broken a lot of laws concerning vigilantism. We can probably get the charges dropped, but it would be contingent on Blackhawk either no longer doing her vigilante work, or on you working with us, with comparable accountability.” He paused. “And you can’t actually do that until you’re an adult – we don’t hire minors.”

“What, no interns?” she said.

“Even our interns are old enough to buy their own booze instead of flirting it off of people,” Stark said, gesturing at a picture of Bishop holding up a martini while shouting at something off-camera. Natasha wondered if she had actually been drinking and partying, or just pretending to be drunk for the good optics.

“Sooo…you’re just going to turn me over to the cops, then?” she said, sounding oddly resigned to it. Tired.

They could also see her sexual assault file in the corner of the screen, and Natasha wondered if part of the reason for Bishop’s nighttime work was because she wouldn’t be sleeping, anyway.

“No,” Phil said. “But whatever else we do, your work as Blackhawk is over.”

“For now,” Steve said.

Phil looked at him sharply.

“If Blackhawk stops working, we can hire her in a few years when she’s old enough, right?” Steve said.

“I can’t believe you’re considering this,” Tony said, leaning forward in his seat. “She’s a kid! She-”

“Is right here!” Bishop snapped, leaning forward in her own seat.

“You’re a kid,” Tony said. “You shouldn’t be doing any of this-”

“And you think I care?” Bishop said. “I already _am_ doing this, so that ship’s kinda sailed, Mr. Stark.”

“We can stop it,” Sam cut in. He appeared to be concurring with Tony – but Natasha knew by now that it didn’t mean he actually agreed. He could be just as manipulative as Natasha herself, sometimes. “You should be out – going to prom and studying and shit. Get a college degree or something.”

“Well, I’ve managed to keep up a pretty good GPA while being Blackhawk,” she said, raising a challenging eyebrow. “So clearly I’m doing a pretty good job.”

“It doesn’t matter what else you’re doing,” Natasha said. “At your age-”

“You guys were doing way worse than this at my age,” Bishop pointed out, gesturing between her and Clint.

“And that’s exactly why we _don’t_ want you in this business,” Clint said. “We know a thing or two about child soldiers.”

Bishop actually burst out laughing. Natasha frowned at that, wondering what the joke was – but no one else seemed to be laughing, either.

“What humors you?” Thor asked.

“Child…soldiers?” Bishop gasped out incredulously. “I’m hardly a child soldier!”

“You’re a child doing combat wetwork,” Sam pointed out. “By most definitions of child soldiers around the world-”

“I’m a teenager who dresses up at night to beat people up,” Bishop said. “And it’s _not_ just some PTSD thing. I have a therapist, actually, who says I’m doing great on that front.”

“That’s not the point,” Clint said.

His voice and body were incredibly controlled, and he was doing everything in his power to appear calm, professional, and objective about the situation. That, alone, told Natasha just how invested in Bishop’s case he really was.

It was probably taking everything in him not to slam his hands on the table.

“Then what is the point?” Bishop demanded. “What are you going to do to me? Should I be calling my lawyers, or do I even get any? I don’t even know if I’ve been arrested, yet!”

“Not yet,” Phil said solemnly. “But after tonight, if you try to work as Blackhawk again, you probably will be.”

Bishop pursed her lips. “So that’s it? You go through all this effort to bring me in, and you get everyone here, just to tell me to stop?”

“We just happened to be in the neighborhood,” Bruce said, gesturing between himself, Sam, and Thor.

“The rest of us were hoping to be evaluating a new member,” Steve said carefully, clearly still a little incredulous about her age. Steve turned a challenging look at Phil. “And maybe we still can, in about a year and a half.”

Bishop crossed her arms again. “And what makes you think I want to work for you, anyway?”

Natasha couldn’t help but snort at that. “Besides the fact you decided to take up a mantle after this?” she asked, jerking her thumb at Clint.

“Hey!” he protested, no heart in it whatsoever. “If she was going to copycat one of us, she picked a _fine-_ ”

“Her name starts with the same word as mine,” Natasha said.

“I didn’t really pick the name,” Bishop said, glancing between Natasha and Clint in amusement. “I figured I’d just wait until the press spat out a few, then pick the one I liked best.”

“You should’ve gone with Hawkeye II,” Clint said. Two seats down from him, Phil facepalmed with what Natasha was pretty sure was a fond look on his face.

“You still haven’t answered my question, by the way,” Bishop said. “What are you going to do to me?”

“Well, I can finally sign your bow,” Clint said. Around the table, the rest of the team groaned, Bishop snickered, and Phil stared despairingly at his husband.

“I take it that comes with a price?” Bishop said coolly. Though interestingly enough, she actually did look excited at the prospect of him signing her bow.

Maybe it wasn’t just a good cover. Maybe she really did admire Hawkeye…or even Clint Barton.

“We’ve already captured you,” Clint said. “I think that’s price enough for an autograph.”

“…and after?” Bishop asked quietly, looking around at all of them.

Phil sighed, and looked to Skye, who handed over her tablet.

“We have to tell the NYPD about you, and possibly a few others,” he said finally. “Ones who can be trusted, and who will probably agree to drop the charges as long as you agree to drop the wetwork.”

Bishop momentarily shut her eyes in frustration. “Goddamnit.”

“Additionally,” Phil said. “We are going to be keeping an eye on you, either on our own or in conjunction with the NYPD, to make sure you don’t just try again with a different alias and get-up.”

“You’re just going to monitor me until I…what, join you?”

“Us, or another organization that can legally utilize your skills – which are, in fact, impressive,” Phil said. “But until then, nothing. You’re too young. We all happen to believe that in spirit, but even if we didn’t, you are also just too young by law to do anything like this.”

“You’re really going to waste resources making sure I don’t do vigilante work again?” Bishop said, clearly still disbelieving.

Natasha wondered what she’d been expecting out of them. Given the wording of the police reports about her assault, she didn’t think Bishop had particularly high expectations of them.

She wondered if any rape victim ever did.

“If we want to make sure you’re not in prison when you turn eighteen,” Phil said easily.

“You’re going to hire her,” Tony said disbelievingly. “You – you’re seriously going to hire her? Forget the law, she’ll still be a kid!”

“Kids can do a lot,” Steve pointed out.

“And she has already proven herself a capable warrior,” Thor added.

Bishop kept silent, looking between all of them. Was she hoping they would all speak in favor of her eventual hire? Or that someone would speak up in favor of letting her continue her work now?

“I don’t like it,” Clint said easily. “But something tells me she’s not gonna stop just because we tell her to, especially once she’s legally old enough.”

Though Bishop muttered under her breath, Natasha still heard her, “Damn straight” from halfway down the conference table.

“I think giving everyone a long, happy childhood is a nice idea,” Natasha said. “But the thing about nice ideas is that they rarely survive contact with reality.” She turned to Bishop. “Why do you do this? You still haven’t answered _that_ question.”

“Because I can help people?” Bishop said. “I mean, honestly, total respect for the NYPD and all, but they can’t be everywhere, all the time. Spider-Man’s done some great work, and I figured I could do some great work, too.”

“About that,” Skye started.

“You could do plenty of other things,” Natasha said. “Besides the money and fame, besides all sorts of perfectly appropriate volunteer and charity work someone of your age can do, besides even something like teaching other girls how to defend themselves – why risk yourself like this on a nightly basis?”

“More fun,” Bishop said, and now she was trying way too hard to deflect. “Fame, glory-”

“You don’t care about them,” Natasha said. “You just do your work, you never try to interact with the press or manipulate your image. Why do you do this?”

She could see her teammates, Phil, and Skye watching her apprehensively. Sam, in particular, narrowed his eyes at her, but then turned his gaze on Bishop. He was probably developing the same concerns on the spot as Natasha was.

“What does it matter? I’m still going to have to stop, and I’m still gonna find a way to do it legally when I hit eighteen,” Bishop said. However, by now she seemed to realize that she wasn’t getting out of answering, because she was sitting up straight again, glaring at Natasha dead-on.

“That still doesn’t answer the question,” Sam said.

Bishop swallowed, looking around at everyone at the table. For a moment, despite her defiance and attempted bravado, she just seemed…small.

The girl turned to look at the screen behind her, and pointed at the corner where her assault file was. She turned her head back to face them as she spoke.

“I was one of the very, _very_ few women to actually fit that stereotype of getting assaulted by a stranger while walking alone at night,” she said. “How often does that even happen? Not often. That was shitty luck on my part. But it still happened. And stuff like that happens to people all the time. I can’t stop it all. I can’t stop it every time something happens. But I can stop some attacks, some of the time. And I probably won’t ever save the world, but if someone had been able to save me, it would have saved _my_ world.”

The Natasha glanced at Skye, wanting to take in the impression of the only other woman in the room, right then. Skye, for once, wasn’t looking at her computer screen, or even the TV screen, but at the girl herself.

Skye had survived by herself for years before Coulson found her. There was no record of what her life was like between fleeing the foster system and being found by Phil, beyond her various aliases in the Rising Tide. But life on the streets as a young woman? Natasha could make a few guesses as to what she would have seen, if not experienced herself.

“I’ve saved lives,” Bishop continued, dropping her arm to face them all fully. “I already told you,” she added, glancing between Clint and Phil. “I’ve saved lives, I’ve saved livelihoods, I’ve saved bodily autonomy – they’re all small things, but when it’s you being threatened, that can be everything. Entire lives can be ruined by the wrong person getting their hands on their wallets, it can take months to recover from the wrong kind of robbery on your store, and _years_ to recover from an assault.”

Natasha wondered if the girl realized just how close to home she was hitting for so many of the Avengers, how many of them knew perfectly well what kind of difference having the right person swoop in and save them at the right time would have been.

Looking at Bishop and looking at the slice of her history that they had on the screen behind her, Natasha got the feeling she was being genuine.

That was a terrifying prospect.

However, she didn’t let that fear or apprehension onto her face. Instead, she kept her expression cool and calm as she leaned back in her seat and said simply, “Good.”

Immediately, Tony, Bruce, and Thor looked at her in askance. Clint smirked without looking away from Bishop, while Steve and Phil hung their heads in exasperation as Skye took her tablet back to start poking rapidly at the screen.

“You’re serious,” Tony said finally, looking at them all.

“I think we’ve pretty much figured out she’s going to try to be a hero, no matter what,” Bruce said. “Might as well make sure it’s with us.”

“I’m not trying to _be_ a hero!” Bishop snapped, seeming inexplicably indignant. “I’m just trying to save _some_ people, that’s all.”

At this, Natasha shared a look with Clint.

She got the horrible feeling that Bishop was being genuine here, too.

“Still,” Steve said. “Hero or not – you are very good at what you do. And we want to have someone like you working with us, one day. But that day isn’t today. Just – please. Don’t be Blackhawk. There are so many things you can do with your skills for the next few years-”

“Next _few_ years?!” Bishop said incredulously.

“-and I’m pretty sure that we’ll like whoever you are then, even more,” Steve said finally.

Leave it to Steve to know how to end on a strong note.

Phil stood up, and within moments, everyone except Bishop stood with him.

“Just wait here, Ms. Bishop,” Phil said. “We’ll be taking you home, and we will have to inform your father-” Here, Bishop rolled her eyes but otherwise didn’t seem too upset about it. Rather than being reassured, it spoke volumes to Natasha about how much involvement in her life her father had. “-and we will be implementing surveillance on you.”

With a sharp gesture from Phil, everyone pushed their chairs in and filed out of the room, leaving Bishop glancing around herself with in well-disguised nervousness.

“Are you guys serious about this?” Tony demanded as soon as the door closed. In the small utility office next door, May and Triplett were watching the monitor of the security feed from the conference room, May sitting upright in the chair as Triplett leaned against the desk.

“She didn’t seem to be lying,” May said, looking up. Looking back down at the screen, she said, “The fact that she was saying the truth the whole time may actually be the problem.”

“No kidding,” Phil said. He sighed as he looked town at the tablet in Skye’s hands. “I was looking forward to having her skillset for SHIELD.”

“Are we really going to put surveillance on her?” Skye asked. “She had a point, that’s a lot of resources just to keep her from doing something stupid.”

“But it’s not a lot to keep an eye on our only lead on Spider-Man,” Natasha said.

Skye blinked in surprise, but nodded, turning to desk with May and Triplett to start planning something out.

“Do you really think this’ll work?” Natasha asked.

“Not really,” Phil said. “But I have to hope it does. She’s the only lead we’ve got.”

“Who wants to be the one to go tell Robert Bishop that his daughter is Blackhawk?” Clint asked.

“We’ll be taking care of that,” May said from the little huddle over the desk.

“Is he going to care?” Tony asked derisively. “Bishop didn’t seem too worked up about us telling him. That means she doesn’t expect it to matter much.”

“As long as we inform him of the surveillance and he doesn’t try to stop it, that’s fine,” Phil said. “Now c’mon – if Bishop has contact with Spider-Man, she’ll be making that contact pretty fast. We need to be ready when it happens.”

A lone, teenage girl had managed to evade the NYPD for months, and it took the Avengers two tries to get to her. She didn’t get that far by being dumb – or by making nice and playing by the rules.

Natasha honestly couldn’t wait to see what she would do next.

~*~

Twelve hours later and Kate still couldn’t believe it.

Kate would say she was in shock, if she hadn’t already experienced shock before. Then again, last time it had been in a police station, surrounded by doubtful and unsympathetic cops, so maybe this was what experiencing shock on her own was like.

Blackhawk was done.

Kate stared down at the screen of the phone in her lap, not seeing a damn thing.

Despite her father’s perfunctory lecture about going out at night and _hadn’t she already learned from last time_ , despite all the surveillance scans, despite the bugs she _saw_ that Agent May woman put all over the place – it hadn’t really sunk in that she’d been caught, that she couldn’t work anymore. The only reason she didn’t try to call Gwen or Peter is because she knew they would be watched if she did, and she was going to have to come up with a way to safely get in touch with them.

And now she was going to school, like everything was normal. She wondered if SHIELD was watching the school, now, too.

It was almost lunch, and Kate couldn’t wait until she could go hide in the locker room showers and just vent, or sit quietly and try not to cry.

She hadn’t even lasted six months.

Her phone flashed again, and Kate just didn’t want to go out and party tonight, and she _couldn’t_ go out and beat up some bad guys. She was about to shut it off and stuff it in her bag when she saw the message on the screen.

_Go to the Ground Support café at 1400._

The number was blocked, and there was nothing signing it. She would dismiss it, it if weren’t for the timing and what had happened last night.

She swallowed, and fought the urge to nod, instead actually switching it off and shoving it into her bag.

Didn’t look like she was spending lunch in the locker rooms, after all.

Instead, she slipped out through the back gate that everyone knew about but no one ever fixed, and took two buses and a taxi to get to the café.

At the café, she had half an hour before 2pm – or she hoped the 1400 meant 2pm – so she got herself a coffee and settled in with a notebook open to her last page of history notes, hopefully looking like she was studying. Then again, it was probably obvious she was ditching school, given the time.

She was waiting until 2pm, but it was only a quarter til that someone bumped into her.

“Sorry!” the guy called out over his shoulder as he kept walking. She rolled her eyes as she stared after him, the shook her head and looked back down at the table.

Only to see a napkin on the table with jagged handwriting on it.

_Two blocks north, one block west. Bus stop bench on the east-bound side of the street, in front of the McDonald’s._

Huh.

She finished her drink, not leaving until 2pm, at which point she followed the directions, wondering if she still had surveillance and praying she wasn’t setting herself up for some kind of kidnapping or something.

But whoever set this up was good. She had to go through the entrance of a farmer’s market, and the turning point had a pretty big crowd on it. Once at the bench, she saw another napkin sitting idly on the bench, the corner tucked into the little gaps of the bench, and bearing the same jagged handwriting.

_Take the eastbound bus to the stop two blocks after your school. Then walk south._

Vague enough that no one can immediately figure out a location without context, but specific enough that she couldn’t miss it.

She was getting frustrated enough to consider just not going, but she went anyway, because now that she couldn’t be Blackhawk, it wasn’t like she had anything better to do.

So she went, and it was nearly three by the time she was back around the area where she started, and she really hoped she lost her surveillance or whatever for all this stuff she did, today.

She got off and started walking south, figuring it was about ten blocks before she hit the edge of the island. If she got there and there was another step, though, she was just going home.

She was barely two blocks away when a voice from beside her said, “I’m sorry for putting you through all this, Bishop.”

Kate turned to see a guy could have been any one of her classmates. A boy right around her age, wearing really tight jeans and a pretty form-fitting sweater. He looked oddly familiar, but before she could place him, he said, “I overheard the surveillance plans SHIELD has for you. This was the only way to lose them on such short notice.”

She nearly froze at that. Up until now, she had no idea who or what all of this was about, but at the very least the lack of any names meant there were a lot of possibilities, and many of them could absolutely just be about Kate Bishop, party-girl extraordinaire.

But a random guy knowing she was under surveillance by SHIELD…

“Who are you?” she hissed, only barely managing to keep walking.

The guy smiled apologetically. “You’ve probably heard of me. The new Iron Man who sucks at his job?”

She frowned. “Wasn’t that someone in an extra suit over a military base or something?”

“I’m not a suit,” the boy said calmly. “I’m an android.”

Now she did stop and stare at him incredulously. In response, he held out his hand for her to shake.

She looked down at warily – what if he was about to grab her or something – but his other hand was visible and he was waiting patiently, and if he wanted to kidnap her, then he probably would have directed her to somewhere other than one of Manhattan’s busier shopping districts.

So she reached out and shook his hand and tried not to jerk in surprise at the firm, metallic-rubber feel of it. It felt how she imagined a prosthetic limb would feel, but he was moving all the fingers to clasp around her hand and shake it, as if they were just two teenagers agreeing to something in the middle of the street, and even then, she felt… _something_ mechanical about the movement.

She dropped his hand and said, “That still doesn’t tell me who you are.”

“My name is Jonas,” the guy said. He gestured for them to keep walking, so she followed him. “I was created by…well, an associate of Tony Stark. I was meant to help Iron Man in the field, but I appear to be running into the same exact problem as you are, now.”

“They think you’re too young?”

“They think we’re underdeveloped,” Jonas said. “And I would love nothing more than to prove them wrong. I think you would, too.”

She shrugged, thinking back to last night as they waited for a stop light. She still burned in humiliation when she thought of it, from the capture to baring her soul out to the world’s first and best superheroes.

“I think it was more of a legality,” she started, as they made their way across the street.

“That’s part of it,” Jonas said. “But I don’t exist on paper, and they’re not letting me do anything, either.” He paused. “I want to help, just like you. I saw the security footage from the interrogation, last night.”

Aaaaand, yeah, just when she thought things couldn’t get any more humiliating, they did.

“So what do you want to do about it?” she said. “They’ve got a pretty sharp eye on me, and if you’re a robot-”

“Android,” he corrected smoothly.

“-they probably have some way of tracking you down, too,” she said. They had to wait to cross another street.

“I don’t know,” Jonas admitted with a shrug. “But – if nothing else, we can help train each other. And maybe, one of us can come up with something, and we can work it out.” He paused. “And maybe you can invite Spider-Man to join us.”

She snorted. “Doubtful.” She was about to elaborate honestly when it occurred to her that this guy could just as easily be lying, be working with the Avengers and SHIELD – or someone else altogether. Instead, she said, “I only talked to him as Blackhawk. No more Blackhawk, no more contacting Spider-Man.”

“…uh-huh,” he said, disbelieving. “Well, that’s a shame. But either way…” He handed her another napkin with an e-mail address on it, _Vision2014_ , and a phone number with an unfamiliar area code. “Get on a public computer, private browser, and save a draft to this e-mail if you want to tell me something. I’ll do the same – that’s the password, so don’t change it. Text me something – anything inane – to that number, and I’ll check the e-mail.”

Halfway down the block, she stopped to take the napkin. Instead of pocketing it, though, she took a picture of the information on it with her phone, and handed it back to him. She’d fallen for something innocuous secretly being a tracker once, and she wasn’t about to risk doing it again.

Hell, she’d _done_ it, once. She wondered if this was how Peter had felt when she’d made her proposal, and almost felt sorry enough to apologize.

Almost. She’d had a point, and if he was telling the truth, then this guy had a point, too.

At the next cross-street, she made a move to turn left by crossing the street, and it became clear that Jonas was going to turn right and keep going on the sidewalk.

“We’ll stay in touch, then?” she said easily enough, pocketing her own phone as they continued walking down the block, making a mental note to check her stuff for bugs once she made her way back to school.

“Let’s hope,” Jonas said easily. He smiled and said, “Have a good day, Blackhawk,” and went around the corner. She followed the light, crossing the street in the opposite direction to go back to school, getting ready to act like she’d totally been in class all along, not her fault the teachers didn’t hear her when she said ‘here’, especially since her throat kinda hurt today and that’s why she was so quiet-

What the hell was her life, these days?

~*~

It had been nearly three days since the now-viral video of the chase between Hawkeye and Blackhawk when Gwen got a text from Kate saying, _Let’s go shopping! We can get something nice to surprise your bf with. ;)_

“Hey, Mom?” she said, finishing up her morning coffee and getting ready to go to school. “I might stay out a bit late, a friend of mine wants to go shopping.”

The upside of having three brothers was how distracted it often left mom. A simple, “Keep your phone on” was all Gwen got for her request, and she was off.

She spent most of the school day worrying – for Kate, and for Peter, who was as jumpy and nervous as the last few days since the chase, and who Gwen had to pull aside into a private corner _twice_ just to get him to calm down.

“I don’t want to try and call her or anything,” Peter said, when Gwen asked if he’d heard from her. “Or text or – whatever.”

“She texted me, so she must have some form of contact,” Gwen said. She looked down at her phone, showing Kate’s last message confirming where and when they would meet this afternoon. “She’s probably going to tell me what’s happening.”

“Spider-Man is _definitely_ not working with Blackhawk anymore,” Peter grumbled.

“I’m not sure Blackhawk is going to be working at all,” Gwen said. She gave him a reassuring kiss as the bell rang, and went off to their last set of classes.

Two hours later, though, even she was being eaten up by anxiety when she met with Kate outside an upscale Macy’s store just off of downtown Manhattan.

She hadn’t missed that Kate’s texts all lacked anything remotely related to even Peter, let alone their alternate aliases, which meant she thought she was being watched. Whatever her current charade was, Gwen wasn’t going to be the one to break it.

“Hey, Kate!” Gwen greeted. “How’re you doing?”

“Okay,” she said cheerfully. “I just wanted to get some new shoes, figured you’d like to come with.”

Were shoes a codeword or reference of some kind? Gwen couldn’t tell, but she followed Kate anyway. For the next two hours, they wandered around three stores, before Kate finally got self a pair of boots, and some new Greek flats for Gwen.

It wasn’t until after they’d gone into a café and Kate was walking Gwen back towards her apartment when Kate, leaning into Gwen’s side and pointing at a hat store in excitement, said, “Roll your eyes and shake your head while I’m pointing.” Gwen complied, and Kate turned, a playful look on her face that was at odds with her solemn voice saying, “We need to look like we’re arguing about the next store to visit.”

Gwen crossed her arms, pointed at her wrist like she was talking about the time, and said, “What happened?”

Kate tilted her head, mock-woebegone. “I was captured by the Avengers. They’re not going to arrest me, but Blackhawk can’t do any work until I’m at least eighteen. They even told my dad, and he’s been cooperative, letting them implant surveillance and stuff before he went off to the Hamptons again.”

Gwen wanted to stare, wanted to ask if she was all right after what had looked like a very intense pursuit, wanted to ask _so many_ other things, but she didn’t think they had much time when they could talk.

Instead, she gestured down the street they’d just come up, as if they had passed something she was interested in, and said pragmatically, “What should Peter be concerned with?”

“No direct contact with me,” she said, making a confused face as she looked where Gwen was gesturing. “Even this is risky, I’ve already gone out with three other people to throw them off, and I’m still not sure if or how they’re watching me. One of those people is a drug-dealer, though, so that might keep SHIELD at least a little distracted.”

Gwen swallowed, then made a slightly-dramatic sighing motion as she crossed her arms to face Kate, as if exasperated by a party-girl’s lack of attention. “So it really is SHIELD, then?”

“Yeah,” she said, making an almost-stamping-her-foot-but-not-quite motion, perfectly befitting a spoiled rich girl and completely contrary to the Blackhawk Gwen knew most. “In a week or two, I’ll get a burner phone and call you then. But until I figure something out, Blackhawk is out of commission. SHIELD or the Avengers are probably going to be issuing a statement of some kind, soon.”

“Is our shopping trip over?” Gwen asked, trying not to nod professionally.

Kate somehow made herself look like she was sighing sadly as she said with good humor, “Yes. Tell Peter to be careful – now that know I can’t work for them, they’re hoping he can.”

“I will,” she said, leaning in to hug Kate goodbye. “We’ll figure something out.”

Kate squeezed, and Gwen got the feeling that it wasn’t just for show. “I know. Thank you.”

That night, Gwen was on the phone with Peter as they watched a news briefing from the Director of SHIELD, stating that indeed SHIELD had managed to bring Blackhawk into custody, and that she wouldn’t be working with them, but would no longer be doing vigilante work, either. For security reasons, while certain select officials were told about her true identity, it wouldn’t actually be disclosed to the public.

She watched a clip of Dad’s old boss – promoted since the Lizard incident – saying that he was given the confidential information and concurred with SHIELD’s decision to keep Blawkhawk’s identity secret, and that the NYPD would not pursue the case as long as she didn’t go out crimefighting anymore.

“You _really_ have to be careful, now, Peter,” she said. “Now that Blackhawk’s out of the spotlight, all attention will be on Spider-Man, now.”

“See, this is why I hate group projects,” he said. “Someone always finds a way to get out of doing their fair share of the work.”

Gwen smiled, silently praying that he wouldn’t be locked down, too. She wasn’t entirely sure he could survive being contained like that.

If she thought he could, she would have tried it herself a long time ago.

~*~

It had been nearly two weeks since meeting with Bishop when Jonas, flying over an empty beach in New Jersey, saw a streak of white light on the ground below him – and a person leaving that streak behind.

The fastest human running speed on record was around 27mph, a record set by an Olympic runner and measured on a 100m dash. Even Steve Rogers _{alt id #Captain_America alt id #Spangles}_ could only run 30mph at this fastest, a speed he rarely went for long.

So when Jonas saw a person running at over a hundred miles an hour – literally, not just the phrase, but literally running more than 100mph to keep up with him while running _on the ground_ – he knew he wasn’t dealing with a normal human.

That, and the white streak in the air left behind by the runner. Jonas knew it was more than just a visual illusion brought on by the runner’s speed – it was an actual streak of energy through the air, trailing behind them as they ran.

But whoever or whatever it was, they kept up with him and followed him and clearly wanted his attention, and he knew that Father and the Avengers would not approve of him meeting with an unknown superhuman on the outskirts of the New Jersey border.

So, of course, he landed right in the being’s path, and then promptly had to spend several processing cycles to circumvent the unexpectedness of being faced with a ragged-looking teenager.

It triggered _Sub-Algorithm: Surprise_ and _Sub-Algorithm: Confusion_ , and probably some more but Jonas wasn’t even paying attention.

“Who are you?” he asked instead. “ _What_ are you?”

“My name is Tommy Shepherd,” the boy said, sounding exhausted and aggressive all at once. “I’m HYDRA’s latest attempt at superhumans. I’m not the only one. And we need your help.”

“We?” Jonas asked, not sensing anyone nearby. They were on an isolated coast of New Jersey, and at this time of night and this day of the week, no one was out.

It was the only reason he was allowed to fly.

“My brother, and some other kids we saw at the facility,” Shepherd said. “Please – HYDRA is hurting them. It’s in West Virginia.”

Jonas frowned at that thought, a byproduct of _Sub-Algorithm: Distress {Severity: #oh_no}_.

“Was it under a joint-operations Army and Air Force base?” Jonas asked.

The boy eyed him warily. “Yeah. The newspapers said you flew over us.”

“I…” Jonas shook his head, a motion of confusion that he knew he was copying for no good reason, and feeling no desire to stop it. “I saw unusual energy registers, and personnel activity, but they reacted badly when I tried to get a closer look, and the Avengers would not let me investigate further.”

Shepherd blinked, then grinned. “Dude, you’re the reason I was able to get out! That’s why I came looking for you!”

Jonas wanted to run _Sub-Algorithm: Pride {Severity: #Aw_shucks}_ , but found himself oddly unable to as he finally processed Shepherd’s earlier words.

“You said there’s experimentation going on there?” he asked.

Shepherd’s expression darkened again.

“Yeah,” he said. “HYDRA is trying to make its own team of superheroes – or supervillains, I guess – and we’re the guinea pigs.”

“I understand. I will contact the Avengers-”

“NO!” Tommy snapped. “No Avengers, no SHIELD! Weren’t you captured by Iron Man or something? That’s what all the newspapers say.”

Jonas shook his head. “I live with him.”

Shepherd looked at him in dismay, and started to back away. “No, no, there, you can’t-”

 _Sub-Algorithm: Confusion_ increased to _{Severity: #WTF?!}_ as he stared at the boy.

“What?” Jonas said. “If it’s HYDRA, the Avengers will help you and your friends-”

“Yeah, and then lock us up all over again!” Shepherd snapped, somewhat hysterically. “Didn’t they do that to Blackhawk? And you just said that you told them something was off and _they ignored it_. They could have rescued us and they ignored us! I can’t, we can’t – we just want to go home, but SHIELD will say we’re too dangerous, won’t they? They-”

“They will want to help,” Jonas said. “Blackhawk is being monitored, but she isn’t even under house arrest – she is going through her normal, daily life as we speak.”

“Because she doesn’t have superpowers, right?” Tommy said. “The Avengers chased her because they thought she did, and then dumped her when she didn’t, but they’re still after Spider-Man and-”

“She doesn’t have powers, but she’ll probably work with the Avengers or SHIELD in a few years, it’s a…legal problem, she can’t work right now but she will,” Jonas said, before realizing he was getting distracted. “They can help, we can help-”

“What kind of legal problem?” Shepherd snapped, sounding increasingly anxious. “That she won’t let them enslave her?”

“That she’s underage,” Jonas said quietly.

That caused Shepherd to pause.

“…she’s a kid, too?” he asked dubiously.

Jonas nodded. “And she’s not the only one the Avengers are trying to protect.”

He flushed a minor power surge through his processors to try and clear his active-thought hardware and said, “I was made to help Iron Man, and they won’t let me – not because they don’t trust me, but because they are trying to keep me from being hurt.”

“So they’re locking you down for your _own_ good,” Shepherd said derisively. “What the hell are they going to do to us? My brother and I – we’re already…” Shepherd shook his head, and taking in his appearance – his thinness, the bags under his eyes, and the worn-down state of his mismatched clothes – Jonas wondered when the last time he got any rest was. “And there are other kids, and I think some of them are more dangerous than us. I thought – you were…”

“Don’t trust the opinion editorials,” Jonas said.

“Well, if you’re not being locked up by the Avengers, then you’re with them,” Shepherd hissed. “I’m not letting anyone lock us up ever again! Not the Avengers, not SHIELD, not HYDRA, no one!”

“I’m not-” Jonas paused. “SHIELD won’t lock you up-”

“HYDRA infiltrated them once,” Shepherd insisted. “They’re everywhere, and SHIELD is probably the reason I got imprisoned in the first place, the perfect place for HYDRA to take me, and I don’t give a damn, I’m not letting any agency touch us ever again!”

“The Avengers,” Jonas said. “They’re separate from SHIELD.”

“Are they?” Shepherd said darkly, taking a step back again. “I don’t know and I can’t take that chance, if you won’t help me-”

“I’ll help!” Jonas said.

Shepherd paused, narrowing his eyes. “You just said the Avengers had you grounded.”

“…they do,” Jonas said. “Look, let me help. I can prove to them that I’m capable of being in the field, and I can prove to _you_ that the Avengers will do you no harm, they will protect you.”

When the boy started shaking his head, Jonas added, “I can get Blackhawk to help us, too.”

That gave Shepherd pause. “You just said-”

“We’re both on lock-down,” Jonas said. “And we both hate it. But the Avengers are doing it to protect us, and they’ll protect you, too. She’ll help, and she might even be able to get Spider-Man’s help, too.”

Shepherd seemed frozen, but upon zooming in his vision, Jonas saw that he was trembling.

“You need rest,” Jonas said. “And food.” He thought about offering a place to stay, but he didn’t have anywhere that Tony and Father couldn’t access, and anyway he doubted Shepherd would trust him. “Go to wherever you are hiding and rest, and eat. We’ll meet up tomorrow, at least three of us – four, if Blackhawk can get Spider-Man to come. We’ll rescue your brother and your friends.”

Shepherd swallowed. “You’re really going to help me?”

“Yes,” Jonas said. He considered preparing more reassurances, but they worked best when one understood the receiving party’s apprehensions and motivations. He didn’t know what Shepherd’s past was, but it was clearly one full of pain and betrayal. Shepherd would not trust in his goodwill – but he might in some selfishness. “Spider-Man is superhuman, too. Blackhawk and I can use this as an opportunity to prove our worth to the Avengers, and you’ll get a rescue mission out of it. Everyone wins…well, everyone except HYDRA.”

Jonas still wasn’t always sure when humor was and was not appropriate. He actually didn’t even think this was an appropriate moment, but Shepherd laughed brokenly at his quip, and nodded.

“Do you have a number I can call or something? Or an e-mail? I don’t have anything, so I’d have to use like a payphone or an Internet café or something.”

Jonas nodded, creating a new e-mail off of a background processor in moments and reciting it to Shepherd – and the password. “We won’t need to send anything, we can save all communications between us as drafts.”

Shepherd nodded, repeating the e-mail and password to himself.

“I’ll see you soon,” Jonas said, backing away himself and blasting off into the sky.

“Don’t call the Avengers!” he heard Shepherd shout from below.

“I won’t!” Jonas shouted back, and realized with a start that he meant it – he meant every word he said, tonight.

He quickly started a multi-route communication process to send a message to Bishop as he flew back to the tower, and plotting how to hide his activity from Father and the Avengers.

He had a mission, now, and no one could afford letting the Avengers stop him.

~*~

Peter scowled at Kate as they met outside the diner. “You better be right about these guys.”

“I hope I am, too,” she said succinctly. “But if not, we’ve got a story. I told you to meet me here an hour or so from now, because you wanted help surprising Gwen with something, but you either misunderstood the time or just figured you had nothing better to do and might as well show up early. That you were here at this time when I was presumably conducting Blackhawk business is an accident, I was just trying to be efficient with my time and you, random innocent citizen, ended up in the wrong place and time because of it.”

“You really think that’ll fly?” he asked sardonically, looking at the only mostly reputable diner in the dead of night.

“Plausible deniability,” she said. “Seriously, SHIELD is probably too distracted with my friends who are actually hiding things from the law to bother too much with you. But honestly? I think this is the real deal.”

Peter took a deep breath and nodded, gesturing with his head towards the diner as he jammed his hands deep into the pockets of his hoodie. “Unto the breach, then.”

Kate rolled her eyes as she strode forth into the late-night diner. It wasn’t all that lively, but given that it was just past midnight, that was probably to be expected. It didn’t take her long to find their seat once they stepped inside.

Jonas was ‘dressed’ in his usual skinny jeans and a tight sweater. There was also a new guy, whose hair appeared to be a mangled mess of bleach and dye turning it white. His jeans and jacket were all grungy, not washed in a while, and he was jittery enough to make Kate wonder if he was coming off of something.

“Hey, boys,” she said cheerfully as she plopped down, Peter sliding in beside her. Unsurprisingly, Jonas had picked well. There must be either a college, club, or rave nearby. There were a few other groups of people not much older than them, most garishly dressed and slightly intoxicated.

No one would notice their own little island of misfits.

“… _you’re_ Blackhawk?” the new guy asked quietly. He turned to Peter. “And who are you?”

“Withholding any pertinent information until I know more about what’s going on,” Peter said.

“Spider-Man,” Jonas said, and Peter glared at Kate even more. “It wasn’t hard to figure out!” Jonas protested. He held out his hand. “Pleasure to meet you.”

“Uh-huh,” Peter said, shaking the hand but not returning the greeting.

“You are…?” Kate asked the new guy, taking a menu from Jonas and picking up a fry from the basket in the middle of the table.

“Tommy,” the boy said. “Tommy Shepherd.”

“And who is going to tell me why we’re here?” Kate asked as she opened the menu. Steak looked good.

“Let’s just get your food before we talk,” Jonas said. “To make sure-”

“Either someone is or isn’t listening to us,” Kate said. “And _waiting_ isn’t going to change that. We just need to be aware of our surroundings. So – talk. You said something about HYDRA and wanting their own team of superheroes?”

“HYDRA is trying to make their own team of _Avengers_ ,” Shepherd said. “And I was supposed to be one of them.”

Kate raised a dubious eyebrow with a sidelong look, but didn’t actually shift her face away from the menu, or say anything.

“I got this guy’s attention,” Shepherd said, jerking his thumb towards Jonas on his right. “By running at…well, I was keeping up with him when he was flying.”

“He was running at approximately a hundred and seven miles an hour,” Jonas said easily enough.

Kate stared at the guy, and she could feel Peter perk up beside him.

Before any of them could say or do anything, though, the waitress came up to them, setting down a basket of fries with little cups of ketchup and mustard, then pulling out an order pad. “Are you ready to order, or are you waiting on anyone else?” she asked Jonas politely.

“We’re all here,” Jonas said easily.

Kate rattled off her order absentmindedly as she took in the other guy. A hundred and seven miles an hour…she didn’t know what the world record running speed was, but she knew it was way, _way_ less. Her own fastest running speed was running two miles in twelve minutes – that’s a maximum of ten miles an hour, not accounting for the fact running that long would wear her down pretty fast.

This guy could apparently outrun her car – her _dad’s_ car. That took some doing with other cars, forget going on foot.

“A hundred and seven miles an hour,” Peter said dubiously once the waitress was gone.

“It’s not just running,” the guy said uneasily. “I can do everything faster.”

And to prove it, in a blink of an eye, the entire table was rearranged, napkins laid out geometrically and the French fries woven together and the little pile of straw wrappers shredded into dust.

 _Literally_ a blink of an eye – she opened her eyes, closed it for less than a second, opened it again. Beside her, even Peter jerked back in alarm.

She knows enough about his reflexes to realize how fast this guy is to be able to startle even Peter.

“My brother,” the guy said, eying the other patrons warily. No one appeared to have noticed. “He can move things with his mind. Telekinesis, I guess? But he – he’s good with physics and shit, so he can do a _lot_ with that, dissolve things and alter matter and stuff. I don’t really get all of it, but – it doesn’t take a genius to realize how powerful that sort of thing can get.”

“How did they even keep you guys locked up?”

Tommy swallowed. “Mostly, I – I didn’t run because I couldn’t leave him behind, but they basically made sure that the faster I went when they didn’t want me to go, the more I hurt getting…they had like a weird energized trip-wire thing. It hurt. And my brother – if he uses his power even slightly, he puts out like this red energy or something from his hands, sometimes his eyes if he’s tired or using it a lot – it’s nearly impossible to hide, basically, and if he even starts when they don’t want him too…” Tommy – and when did she even start thinking of him as Tommy, anyway? – swallowed. “They had some kind of shock collar on him.”

Kate could feel Peter vibrating with enraged tension beside her – amazing, given she was shaking, herself.

“So he’s still there?” she asked.

Tommy nodded. “And not just him. There were other kids, too. I only know two of their names – I heard the guards calling one of them Altman, and the other Chavez. But there are at least four others besides me and my brother.” He paused. “I got nothing on Altman, but I saw Chavez attack one of the guards, and she barely kicked him, but he still flew clear across the room, and I’m pretty sure I heard bone snapping when he hit the wall. They may have shot her at that point, I don’t actually know – they were dragging me and my brother out by that point.”

“Tell us what you know,” Jonas said. “If HYDRA is restraining them, they’ll probably be using the same superhuman restraint contingencies as SHIELD, and I know what those are.”

Tommy glared at the table, but nodded.

“I don’t know what Altman is there for, or the other blond – a girl. But they have the same restraints, they’re heavy duty and look like they can expand and contract, but they also look like they just snap on and off somehow, so I think they may change size or something? And Chavez and another kid, a black guy, they have like these really big shackles, magnetic ones.”

“I don’t know anything about the former set of restraints you described,” Jonas said, sounding incredibly disturbed as he fished around in his pocket for something, pulling out what looked like a very slim smartphone. Was it actually a smartphone, or a part of him? “But the latter – are they like this?”

He pulled up some nasty looking restraints, and Tommy’s eyes widened as he nodded. “Yeah, exactly – what are they?”

“They were developed as a contingency to restrain anyone with anything resembling superhuman strength,” Jonas said. “But most of the time SHIELD ran into superhumans, they were just sedated and then put in a secure facility of some kind. The only time they’ve ever gotten field use – that we know of – is when they were used on Captain America by HYDRA.”

Peter sucked in a sharp breath beside her.

“He only barely managed to get out of them, and I mean barely,” Jonas said. “And he has training, spent more time as a superhuman – and quite frankly, adults are always stronger than teenagers.”

“So those two are probably superhumans,” Kate said, starting to try and figure out what to do. “The two other kids can probably change their size somehow. And your brother can move things with his mind.”

“Yeah,” Tommy said. “I can get in, but I can’t get the restraints off of them, and even if I did…the facility is underground, beneath a regular military base in West Virginia, so there’s a fuckton of soldiers around. Most of them probably aren’t HYDRA, but I think someone connected to HYDRA is in charge, so if they get an order to attack us…”

“They will,” Kate finished with an understanding nod. “Jonas?”

“I think I know what the former restraints are, too,” Jonas said. He pulled up another schematic, something eerily reminiscent of those chokers Kate remembered from when she was really, really little – except instead of black plastic meant to go comfortably around a neck, these looked like silver metal meant to go _un_ comfortably around the arms.

Tommy nodded again. “These were an initial idea to contain Bruce Banner,” Jonas said. “They could change with him if he Hulked out, but the Hulk proved too strong, so the idea was retired.”

“So they’re baby Hulks?” Kate asked.

Jonas and Tommy both shrugged, both of them still eyeing the restraints. “Could be,” Jonas said. “Most likely, whatever their capabilities, it affects their size of their bodies, and that’s why these restraints are used.”

Kate nodded. “Can we get any information on this place?”

“I already have plenty,” Jonas said.

“I escaped because everyone panicked when someone who wasn’t supposed to flew too close and looked like they were observing the base,” Tommy said. “I think they got too used to relying on no one knowing they’re there to protect themselves. I saw and chance and took it, but…”

“You had to leave the others behind,” Kate said, and she had to give the guy credit – it must have been excruciating to leave them behind.

“That someone was me,” Jonas said. “There was some kind of convoy with a weird energy signature in the area headed towards the base, and Iron Man and I were doing a fly-over. I noticed that the proclaimed energy usage wasn’t matching up to the actual output and tried to get a closer look.” He paused. “People started shooting at me.”

“Hence all those articles about training a secondary Iron Man,” Kate said slowly. “The Avengers said something about experimenting with support, but it wasn’t going well…?”

“Well, apparently I was right,” Jonas said darkly.

“That convoy was probably equipment for us,” Tommy said, his bitter tone making Kate’s heart clench. She couldn’t even begin to imagine his situation – Iron Man was _right there_ and didn’t listen to someone telling him something was off, didn’t try to do anything to save him.

All of a sudden, the fact that even Jonas was willing to keep the Avengers out of his made more sense.

“Waitress,” Tommy muttered, and Jonas did something to his phone so it looked like he was showing them a cat picture on Facebook, just as the waitress came with the first round of plates. Jonas had apparently ordered some kind of chicken tenders and fries, which – did he eat? Still, Kate smiled as the waitress set down her half steak and onion rings, Peter’s burger, and Tommy’s own sandwich.

Once the waitress was gone, Jonas gestured everyone to take from his plate – so he didn’t eat, then – and brought up schematics on the base. Tommy dived into his food, and Kate wondered when was the last time he ate. Actually, if he was on the run – where was he even sleeping? Did he have family or something?

For a few moments, the table was silent as Tommy devoured his own food, and Jonas’, while Peter and Kate ate theirs at a more leisurely pace while Jonas started making notes on his phone.

The silence didn’t last long enough to startle Kate when she heard, “So what’s the plan?” from beside her.

But that didn’t mean she wasn’t surprised. She turned to Peter and said, “You’re really in on this?”

Peter nodded, giving her a _look_ that she was pretty sure meant he wondered how heartless she thought he was. “That could be me, in there. If I’d become Spider-Man before SHIELD collapsed, it probably _would_ be me in there.”

Kate slowly nodded, before turning to Jonas. “And you’re sure the Avengers need to stay out of this? That they won’t help?”

“Oh, they’ll help,” Jonas said. “But right now, they’re a bit obsessed with trying to stay above-board, at least for now. They’d listen to Tommy…and put forth an investigation in conjunction with someone else, who will warn HYDRA either intentionally, or by accident.”

“Which means HYDRA can clear out, discredit Shepherd’s claims, and guarantee a tighter lid on any future investigations,” Peter said grimly.

“We go in with no legal authority, we will probably still get into some trouble,” Jonas admitted. “But not as much, and not when we have evidence. I will have proof of a good reason to have take Shepherd’s word, and if we can get in, the not only can we get the other kids out, we might be able to get some data or other evidential information.”

“It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission,” Kate said. “All right, then. Tommy, you said you can get in – can you get Jonas in with you? If you can, me and Peter can start the process outside…”

~*~

In Clint’s oh-so-humble opinion, the best thing about living in Stark Tower was the food. Seriously, sometimes he wondered if Tony was even capable of doing things by halves.

Phil had insisted on meeting with all the Avengers, because even when all of them came to the tower to take a look at Bishop – and seriously, why did no one believe Clint when he told them Blackhawk was a kid? – they never all stayed in the same place for longer than an hour or two. Tony, ever the multitasker, somehow turned it into a sit-down lunch, though he insisted on calling it a luncheon for some reason Clint couldn’t quite get and chalked up to ‘because rich people’.

Apart from all coming down to grill Blackhawk, the last time they’d all been together was almost three months ago in Chicago, and that had been kind of a clusterfuck.

More than kind of, really.

Clint had gone up to Stark’s floor, expecting a meeting with some sandwiches or something, and was instead met with some kind of brunch buffet with holograms.

At least he wasn’t the only one flabbergasted by it.

“Tony said he would arrange for a small meal,” Thor said, shaking his head in bemusement as he took in all the food. Clint was genuinely worried for the structural integrity of the table. Along with all the individual plates at each chair, there must’ve been almost two dozen platters covered by those fancy serving dome things. “Even by my standards, this does not seem like a small meal.”

“He lives on _smoothies_ half the time,” Clint muttered as he approached the table. Hovering above the food were a series of incident reports about the biggest things everyone has been up to over the last few weeks, slowly orbiting the table. “And then he pulls something like this.”

He probably shouldn’t be surprised after living at Stark Tower for over half a year, but in his defense, the amount of time he was actually _here_ barely added up to a month, and it was a busy six months.

Corralling superpowered assets, restarting a scientific military-intelligence organization, and getting married tended to eat up a lot of time and not leave much room for meals. Seriously, even the wedding was just a few hours. Clint was pretty sure that was the last time the Avengers were all actually together before Chicago. Even when grilling Bishop, half of them had been gone before she was.

They were all busy, these days.

“This is gonna take forever to work off,” Sam muttered, taking a seat between Steve and Nat. He glared at all the food Steve was already piling onto a plate in front of him. “Have I mentioned how much I hate your metabolism, sometimes?”

“You’ve mentioned it,” Steve said.

“Once or twice,” Nat added.

“Per meal,” Steve finished, and Clint snickered as he took a seat on Nat’s other side while Sam threw his hands up in exasperation before poking at a plate of blueberry waffles.

Thor took a seat opposite from Clint, lamenting, “I wish Jane were here – she could use a hearty meal.” He paused and muttered, “Several, in fact.”

Everyone on Clint’s side of the table snorted in unison, familiar with the complexity of trying to feed all their resident geniuses when they were in the middle of something. Even _Betty_ , the most reasonable one of all of them, sometimes needed to be coaxed into taking a break to eat. Bruce could also sometimes be talked into taking a break for an actual meal, but once Tony or Jane dived into something, it could be days before they resurfaced long enough to eat something other than whatever they could hold in one hand while they worked.

Though really, they weren't the only ones, just the worst ones. As they were eating, Steve, Sam, and Nat were all reading some of the hard-light reports hovering in front of them. Even as Clint watched, Thor reached out as a particular orbiting square approached before tapping it as soon as it was in reach, and it dropped from the circle of orbiting squares to just above and a bit back from Thor’s face.

His face tightened as he read the latest reports on efforts to clean up the Dark Elf tech from the black market, but he kept eating, so Clint took that as his own cue to glance up at the ceiling and say, “Hey, JARVIS, do you have anything on what’s been going on with those Gifted bank robbers?”

A few minutes later, Bruce and Betty wandered in, both of them rolling their eyes but neither one particularly surprised when they saw all the food. They took two of the three empty seats on the other end of the oval table from Clint. Clint watched them load up on their plates through the pictures of a guy swinging a whole wrecking ball around like it was made of yarn.

Phil walked in through the door, looking intently at his tablet and talking on the phone even as he took a seat by Clint. Still focused on talking Skye through some kind of data search she was taking care of in Guatemala, Clint started loading up Phil’s plate for him. Phil didn’t actually notice all the food until he hung up and tried to put his tablet down - at which point he realized he couldn’t because there was no _room_.

“I thought Stark said he was doing something small?” he asked, turning to look at Bruce.

“Keyword: Stark,” Bruce said, before taking a bite of his eggs.

And then Phil noticed how much food Clint loaded up for him on his plate, and tried to insist that he spent most of his time in an office or the Bus and didn’t go into the field or even work out _nearly_ enough to warrant this much food and Clint took this opportunity to assert his strong opinions about Phil’s usual diet.

They were still going at it by the time Tony showed up, also talking on his phone. He bid Pepper goodbye as he took his seat, then said, “Everyone’s got enough food, right? Think we need more?”

Clint stared at him incredulously, then turned to Natasha. Judging by the way _she_ was staring, _Tony wasn’t joking_.

“I think we’re good,” he said.

“Well, okay, but we have extra stuff in the kitchen if anyone needs it,” Tony said, and the part of Clint that grew up often not knowing when his next meal would be flailed around in the back of his head.

“Thanks,” Natasha said, bemused, and Phil cleared his throat in that way he did when he was doing his utmost to convince people he was just a harmless bureaucrat.

The Avengers were a lot more wary of a ‘harmless bureaucrat’ than the Director of a scientific military-intelligence organization.

“Dig in,” Phil said, and everyone obliged as Phil started briefing them. “We’ve been noticing a disturbing upstick in HYDRA activity about halfway down the Eastern Seaboard, in northern China, and we’re concerned that they may be making headway into the political chaos in the Middle East.” Clint winced. “On the bright side, we’ve at least confirmed sightings on every Fridge escapee, if not established locations or even retrieved them.” At this, though, he paused darkly. “Or established that we should never have had them in the first place.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Steve asked.

“Whenever any regular prison or jail got someone with advanced or unique capabilities, SHIELD would hold them for the duration of their sentence. But it turns out HYDRA was manipulating the sentences and doing some other pretty nasty things to get people into the Fridge – and more of them than not didn’t leave when they were supposed to.” He paused in the briefing to look at the reports, and Clint’s gut clenched at the naked, second-hand shame on his face.

Phil had given his life to SHIELD long before Loki had happened, and it killed him every time to see how his good work was twisted and abused by HYDRA into some of the most reprehensible directives in history.

“One of their prisoners was a kid who didn’t even _have_ superpowers at the time,” Phil said, sounding genuinely shaken as JARVIS pulled up nearly a dozen reports about various prisoners’ petty thefts that probably didn’t even need county jail time, let alone prison sentences. “It’s ridiculous, he got into a fight and should have been doing community service or something, but HYDRA manipulated the court proceedings so he got a year in prison. I don’t know how or why HYDRA got him into the Fridge, but he came out with inhuman speed. He was last seen outrunning a motorcyclist in the direction of his family home, but he and his twin brother have both disappeared since then.”

“Do you think HYDRA took them?” Clint asked. “Or did they go on the run?”

“I wish I could believe they probably just ran away,” Phil said with a sigh.

“We’ll find them,” Steve said reassuringly.

Phil nodded, still stuck on all the evidence of just how much HYDRA has corrupted SHIELD’s good work.

“JARVIS,” Clint murmured, and JARVIS obligingly vanished all the reports, reverting back to the general stuff Phil was trying to brief them on.

For a few more moments, though, Phil continued to stare unseeing at the ceiling where the false-imprisonment records had been. Clint was sorely tempted to try and get Phil to stop the briefing right then and there, but he knew it would be better for Phil to just keep on forging ahead.

“What next?” he asked softly.

Phil shook his sharply and looked back to the reports just above the food.

“FitzSimmons have been working on reconstructing HYDRA equipment, data recovery, that sort of thing. They even managed to retrieve some of the data on HYDRA’s work in Australia from the lab in Chicago-”

Everyone groaned at the mention of Chicago.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Phil pointed out.

“HYDRA managed to delete almost 90% of their data because some local SWAT guys couldn’t keep their mouths shut about ‘this fucking SHIELD operation’,” Tony said. “It was that bad.”

Here, Phil’s lips twisted in wry amusement. The haunted look wasn’t completely gone, but Clint knew when to take what he could get.

“According to Ms. Lewis, there was at least one silver lining to that debacle,” Phil said. “It turns out, a video of Bruce nearly losing it got leaked, and it’s gone viral.” Bruce froze. “It went viral a while back when we were still cleaning up the mess in Belgium, so it didn’t hit our radar at the time, but apparently one or two news organizations played it during slower broadcast periods, so we heard about it again.”

“…what?” Bruce said, apparently not quite processing it.

“Sorry,” Phil said. “I know you don’t like that sort of thing.”

“I thought you said _silver lining_ ,” Bruce said hoarsely, as Betty took the opportunity to sneak some more fruit slices onto Bruce’s plate while he was staring at Phil.

“It is,” Phil said. “Have you seen the video?”

Before Bruce could respond, the orbiting reports disappeared from above the table and four ‘screens’ facing away from each other appeared.

Tony grinned, having apparently seen the video. Clint was there, sure, but he knew how different reality could be from the little slice of it that gets caught on camera.

He remembered standing beside Bruce when they saw some of the data HYDRA hadn’t managed to delete in time – all their efforts at studying gamma radiation and Pym particles, which were apparently how Bruce could grow several times his size into the Hulk despite not having that mass on him at all times.

Both on-screen and in Clint’s memory, Bruce – wearing his Hulk-proof pants and a spare SHIELD jacket – was summarizing what he was reading off the screen in horror.

Even Clint had seen red when he heard references to human test subjects, and kicked the table when they realized any explanation of whether or not HYDRA had reached the human testing phase had been part of the data they _had_ deleted.

He’d been cursing his foot when he’d heard the low growl, and turned around to see that Bruce’s eyes were bright, angry green.

“How is this a good thing?” Bruce-here-at-the-table said, sounding almost hoarse.

“The public likes to be reassured that we have the same values as them,” Phil said. “And testing dangerous phenomena associated with the Hulk on humans? Definitely closer to HYDRA’s values than the public’s.”

“So that’s why it’s popular?” Bruce asked.

Phil sighed. “That’s part of it. Apparently, the other part is that people think you’re all ‘cute’ in this video.” Phil pretended not to notice how Bruce’s eyes had grown to the size of his plate at that. “I suppose it works well in taking the edge of how intimidating you guys together can sometimes come across as.”

“ _Cute?!_ ” Bruce croaked out.

Even Clint was unsure about it at first, watching himself on screen work to calm Bruce down, muttering quietly into Bruce’s ear while. One by one, the Avengers had come around, keeping various SHIELD agents and soldiers away while protecting Bruce. It was security footage of some kind, so they were all just a little bit fuzzy, but even Clint could see – and remembered – their hard faces as they warned everyone to stay away.

It wasn’t until Sam came in on-screen, expanding his wings to wrap around half the group that Clint saw it.

Betty cooing over the video was kind of the nail in the coffin, though. Bruce turned to stare at _her_ incredulously, while Phil just looked pained.

The video screens disappeared, but instead of just bringing back up the reports, JARVIS instead started showing snapshots of all the social media reactions to that little clip.

Apparently, ‘cute’ was actually an understatement of the Internet’s opinion of the video. Combined with some editorials on whether or not this was a good indicator of the Avengers’ restraint on themselves and possibly even SHIELD, and yeah, Clint could see how even evidence of Bruce nearly letting loose a rage monster in a sensitive lab environment could turn into a good thing.

That said, Clint still wouldn’t be surprised if JARVIS and Skye had worked with Darcy on manipulating the Internet’s opinion of it all before it hit the general public.

“I think they get the idea, JARVIS,” Phil said. So of course, JARVIS froze the screens on some drawing someone did of the Hulk as a stuffed toy with various other Avengers dolls surrounding it, all of them fast asleep like some kid’s naptime arrangement.

Betty smiled fondly at the picture, Bruce stared in incomprehension, and everyone else choked and nearly fell out of their chairs laughing – except Phil, who was looking at them all with his _I can’t believe you’re supposed to be adults_ face.

Clint had missed that face so, _so_ much during Phil’s ‘death’.

Beside him, Phil just sighed and said, “All right, now that you have all been sufficiently reduced to immature children-”

“Oh, c’mon, it’s funny,” Natasha insisted.

“-can we try to get back to the real reason why we’re here, today?” Phil asked.

“But that’s _boring_ ,” Tony whined – even as he settled down and gestured at JARVIS, bringing up all those reports again.

“Now, the increased activity in China,” Phil said, before he was interrupted again – this time by the sound of the balcony doors open and the sound of repulsors cutting out and a heavy body landing.

Between the little landing pad and the actual balcony doors, Iron Lad transformed into Jonas Vision. From there he headed to the elevator, never breaking his stride even as he nodded at them and said, “Hello.”

“Hey, kid,” Clint said, as several of the team waved at him.

Tony turned in his seat and crossed his arms. “Keeping out of trouble?”

“Everything is trouble to you,” Jonas shot over his shoulder.

“I notice that doesn’t actually answer his question,” JARVIS said.

The kid sharply and neatly detoured from the elevator to the stairs, and in less than a minute from when he landed, he was gone.

“…so he’s reached the surly teenager stage, then?” Sam asked sardonically.

JARVIS sighed – clearly an affection to demonstrate his frustration, but somehow amusing nonetheless.

“Unfortunately, it would appear so,” he said.

“He’s been like this for over a week,” Tony grumbled.

Clint frowned as that tickled something in his memory – from another report. “When you say over a week…”

“Nine days to be exact,” JARVIS said. “He abruptly started becoming quite short with me, and I do not know what he is up to, but I am sure he is up to something.”

Phil looked at Clint. “What are you thinking?” he asked.

“I’m thinking that nine days ago, Bishop started taking a lot of cash out of her bank accounts,” Clint said. “And ignoring why the fuck a kid has multiple bank accounts, we’re talking thousands. Mostly in those pre-paid gift card things, though some hard cash too.”

“I have been keeping an eye on Jonas, and I do not believe he has made any contact with anyone outside of everyone here, or our immediate affiliates.”

“But he _has_ been secretive?” Clint asked. “Any periods of time where it’s been unusually difficult to figure out where he’s been or what he’s doing?”

“Plenty,” Tony said. “We’ve been trying to give him more freedom, give him some practicing in decision-making and human camouflage after the West Virginia incident.”

“It may be working too well,” JARVIS grumbled from above them.

“Or maybe it’s working really, really good,” Clint countered. “You have to admit, if Bishop and Jonas met-up and plotted something without us noticing, that’s pretty impressive. How many kids in the world can hide something like that when they both have the Avengers watching over them?”

“Has Bishop given any indications about the money?” Natasha asked.

Clint shook his head. “The agents on her surveillance asked me if we should confront her, but I’m pretty sure if we tried, she’d just lie about it. Wait and see what she does – or what they do, if that’s really what this is about.”

“I hope you’re right,” Phil said. “Nothing good ever comes of letting teenagers do what they want.”

~*~


	5. Jailbreak

~*~

It was one thing for Kate to know, intellectually, that she was aiding and abetting a break-in into a military facility.

It was another thing entirely to be standing just a few hundred feet away from the furthest edge of the base’s security measures and realize that _holy shit she was breaking into the military_.

Nearly ten days of getting ready. Ten days of pulling out money for whoever was in the facility, getting supplies ready, getting her _car_ ready, practicing and training with the boys when they could – which was all of three times, and no way in hell they were prepared. Ten days of getting Tommy as healthy as possible, half-starved as he was, and her and Peter working together to figure out how Tommy could actually best use his powers. Ten days of Jonas watching the base from high, high, _high_ in the sky and reporting everything back to them.

It hadn’t felt real.

Even meeting up with them in the dead of night, spray-painting her car black, and driving all the way here – somehow, none of that had made it sink in. What they were doing didn’t feel _real_ until right now.

She took a deep breath, and murmured into the air, “Iron Lad, Speed, are you ready?”

 _“Ready, Blackhawk,”_ Jonas said, voice transmitting clearly through the earpiece. Apparently, he had the communication system _in his head_.

 _“Ready,”_ Tommy said, his voice much more quiet since he actually had to speak out loud – or whisper, really.

She felt ridiculous saying ‘Iron Lad’ and ‘Speed’, but they all agreed that it would be safer to avoid names for tonight, just in case. In case of what, Kate didn’t know, but it felt safer, and given that they were _breaking into a military base holy shit_ , she knew they needed all the help they could get.

Though why the guy had chosen ‘Speed’ of all things, Kate didn’t know. Maybe something like Flash or Bolt or Quicksilver, but no, it had to be drug slang.

“Spider-Man?” she asked.

 _“Regretting all my life choices, right now,”_ he said. _“But ready to go.”_

“All right, then, boys,” she said.

Some part of her wanted to do…something. Checks, or go over the plan one more time, _something_ , because this was – this was big. There had to be more to it.

But they had already spent a week and a half on this, and there was…well, in theory, they could still turn back.

In theory.

“Spider-Man,” she said, watching a guard walk by. The man was doing his duty, all right, walking his path exactly and stiffly and scanning everywhere and muttering into his radio. But this was inside American soil, and as far as most of the soldiers here knew, this base was military medical research – nothing interesting, nothing dangerous, nothing to see here.

The base was a hangar, two barracks, and four buildings, only three of which were actually for the research this entire place was supposed to be for, with the fourth one being various personnel sustainment.

It was the research building on the very end, the one with the most loading doors and a little bit away from the rest, that had the entrance to the underground HYDRA facility. But of course, either the soldiers didn’t know that or didn’t care. From her position, Kate could see the four main buildings in a row, and could see the tops of the hangar and the barracks on the other side, and the little armada of jeeps and trucks here on this side.

For a military base, it looked almost quaint, and it was nauseating just how much horror was hiding literally just under the surface.

The guard was doing his duty, but he had no reason to be the most vigilant about it. He was thorough but ultimately relaxed, going about his way with enviable ease.

There would be another guy walking the perimeter soon, but not for a few more minutes. As soon as he rounded the corner of a bunch of jeeps, Kate hissed, “Spider-Man, move!”

Even watching from her position up in a tree – literally, she was up in a tree because of course that was the only high point around – and knowing exactly where Peter was, she could barely see him managing to climb the fence and leap over the barbed wire at the top, before flat out running over the open ground after that. Impressive, given the red and blue tights.

She had spent ages considering trying to get him something else, something other than his insanely visible tights – but while black clothes might get him across the ground, it wouldn’t matter what color he wore if he was ever spotted inside. A uniform to get him in as a disguise would be a problem for his movement, and anything that involved him shedding clothing ran the risk of the clothing being found.

And anyway, it was dark enough that he wasn’t seen at all.

She waited, listening with her actual ear and her ears-by-proxy, and watching.

Part of her wanted to ask what was taking so long, why she didn’t see anything. But this wasn’t the movies, where every soldier on duty would go rushing towards a disturbance. When all the jeeps were started when they shouldn’t be, when some soldiers on the opposite side of the compound from the Facility entrance turned up unconscious, and the doors to the small hangar practically slammed open, more soldiers poured from inside one of the buildings, and even the barracks – but no one actually left their post. They were more vigilant, alert, and knew something was wrong, especially since the little surprise Jonas left on the corners of the base meant people could still talk to each other, but there was a hell of a lot more static than there probably should have been.

But they were all human, and thus they were all facing in absolutely the wrong direction.

Three, two, one-

“Speed, go!” she snapped.

And Tommy went, dragging Jonas with him, the latter using his repulsors first to give them a boost over the fence, then to hover so Tommy could push him without breaking him.

They were fast, faster than Peter could ever hope to be. But when Kate saw the stark white streak of light, she was so, SO glad that everyone was still looking in the wrong direction.

Except for two guards, one by the jeeps and one between two of the research buildings, who were in the right place and facing the right direction.

The one between the research buildings went down immediately, a flash of red and blue around him, and Kate took that as her cue to pray that the trick arrow Jonas provided – and Peter modified – worked as well in real life as it had in the empty warehouse they had commandeered for themselves to train in.

The sedative-laced arrow worked and the second guy by the jeeps dropped like a sack of potatoes. Kate hoped he was as quiet as one.

She saw Peter creep over the guy she dropped, yank on the radio, and say something into it. Then he dropped it, shoved the guy under a jeep, and crept back to the buildings, as more and more noise erupted from the other side of the row of buildings, and on the opposite end from the HYDRA entrance.

By the time a few more guards were looking back on Kate’s side of the compound, the white streak from Tommy’s run-through was barely a wisp, looking like a little steam or smoke.

And now some were looking curiously at that spot. But of course, as far as they knew, the guard in the area had just reported seeing nothing, there was chaos elsewhere, and most importantly – the fourth building was quiet.

From here, Kate had to listen. She heard the sounds of Peter waiting on the top of the fourth building, using his own weird extended senses to figure out when to move and staying insanely still until then. Inside, she heard the sounds of Tommy and Jonas working their way through the building, and whether any of the normal soldiers saw or noticed, Kate couldn’t tell.

She could tell when they were inside the HYDRA part, though – mostly by the faint, distant sound of someone shouting, _“Shepherd’s back! And there’s a robot!”_ Or at least it kinda sounded like that.

But she was stuck out here, and she could see some soldiers shifting towards the fourth building.

Taking a deep breath, and pulled out another trick arrow from the quiver by her hip and nocked it.

She was really doing this.

Deep breath, hold, shoot between the movements of her body, releasing the arrow and watching it arc, high up and through and over and exploding when it hit the hangar.

Now it was really chaos.

She waited, and couldn’t help but grin when she heard a distant voice that sounded like Tommy’s cry out incredulously, _“Tommy?!”_

 _“You didn’t really think I’d leave you here, did you?”_ she heard Tommy, himself, say.

_“And who are-”_

_“Iron Lad, for now,”_ Jonas said. _“We don’t have much time, so hold still.”_

And then it was lots of beeping, and some mechanical hissing, and then the other boy – Billy – whimpering in pain, and Kate’s heart clenched as she listened to the hard-ass Tommy try to comfort his brother.

“Guys,” she said, pulling on the bowstring.

 _“On it,”_ Tommy said, and then presumably to Billy, _“It was to someone outside, we’ve got help.”_

“I’m sorry to separate you so soon,” Jonas said. _“But – Billy? We need you to go cause as much havoc as possible.”_

 _“We’re busting_ everyone _out of here,”_ Tommy said.

There was shuffling, the faint almost-buzzing noise of Tommy speed-moving them somewhere, and then a girl shouting, _“What the fuck?!”_

 _“Hi,”_ Tommy said. _“Hold still, we’re busting you out. What’s your name?”_

 _“…Chavez,”_ the girl said, as Kate heard a lot of clicking and some more digital sounding buzzing. _“Rikki Chavez.”_

 _“What are you in for?”_ Tommy said. _“No, seriously, what can you do? I need to know what we’re working with.”_

 _“I’m strong,”_ Chavez said. _“And fast. And I’m_ pissed off _.”_

 _“Good,”_ Tommy said. _“That’s exactly what we need.”_

Kate grinned. Two down, three to go.

She let loose two more exploding arrows, watching with an empty sense of satisfaction as the chaos on the base grew exponentially, and still on the wrong side of the base.

She was just pulling the string back on a fourth arrow, when a familiar mechanical whine came from just above her, and suddenly the tree branch she was on flatout exploded, her own part of it falling away.

The arrow dropped and she barely got her arm between the bow and the string, keeping it with her, before she tried to grab at another branch. She didn’t get a grip, but slowed her fall somewhat, and she cried out when she felt something like her arm splitting open, and she could feel the warmth of her blood up past her elbow even as she landed, and nearly screamed at the sensation of one of her ribs cracking.

It hurt. Oh, god, it hurt, but not nearly enough to abate her panic or sensibility as she struggled to push herself up. She could hear frantic mutterings from Peter and the shouts from Jonas and Tommy, even as they helped someone else – Kate didn’t even know who. She ignored it, though, because that whine had sounded familiar, sounded like the repulors Jonas had. But Jonas was inside, shouting into her earpiece even now.

As far as Kate knew, there were only two other people in the world who could possibly have those repulsors, and Iron Patriot was somewhere in the Middle East. That meant…

It was with cold, spiking dread that she turned herself around and looked up to see her attacker.

“…Iron Man?” she gasped out in horror.

“Hello, Blackhawk,” Iron Man said. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

~*~

“What are they doing?” Bruce asked, stunned, as he listened to an explosion over the hangar on the Quinjet monitor on the hacked security footage. “Bishop and Jonas are doing this?”

“I don’t think it’s just them, anymore,” Clint said darkly, leaning back in his seat, bow and quiver between his feet. “Fuck, what – has she been playing us this whole time?”

“Is she capable of something like that?” Steve asked. He was leaning forward, elbows braced on his knees with the shield strapped to his back as he. While they were unstrapped, they were still in their seats, leaving only Bruce to pace the Quinjet floor uneasily.

They were landed a few hundred feet away from the military base, in the opposite direction of where the arrows had come from. Up until now, they hadn’t even been sure this was where the kids had been headed for. All they knew was that Bishop had spray painted her car black, loaded up half a dozen duffel bags in the trunk, and then Jonas had shown up and climbed into the car with her, along with two other boys, neither of which they could identify on the spot.

Photos of both had been sent along the line to Phil as Bruce, Tony, Steve, and Clint had suited up and got into a jet, with JARVIS griping about Jonas ignoring all his calls.

With the cloudy weather and some of the forest terrain, they’d actually lost the car toward the end of the journey. But given Jonas was in the car and his weird incident with the only significant thing in the area, the military base…

“Is _Jonas_ capable of something like this?” Bruce asked.

Clint shook his head, and Bruce felt his worry grow as Tony said, _“Got her location. She’s up in a tree past the other side of the base.”_

“What the fuck do they think they’re doing?” Clint grumbled again. “Why are they attacking the goddamn army?”

“Did you say there were two strange boys also climbing into the car with her and Jonas?” Steve said. “Do you think they’re threatening Bishop and Jonas into this?”

“We don’t even know who they are,” Bruce pointed out.

“Exactly,” Clint said. “They-”

 _“Blackhawk down,”_ Tony quipped. Clint rolled his eyes as Bruce tried not to worry the hem of his shirt. _“And injured, left arm covered in blood and she looks like breathing hurts.”_

Even Steve winced at that, and they all listened as Tony asked Bishop what she was doing. “Let’s hope she has a good reason for this,” Steve said.

 _“She might be in shock, she’s not responding,”_ Tony said, and they listened as Tony asked her again.

“Seriously,” Clint said. “She’s a rich girl, she has everything, so why…why the hell is she doing something like this?”

“Money isn’t everything,” Bruce said.

 _“Damn straight it isn’t,”_ Tony said. _“Young lady, don’t make me come down there.”_

Clint and Steve snorted, and Bruce rolled his eyes fondly, looking at the speaker from which they were listening to everything.

He suddenly wished Thor and Natasha were here, if only for Thor to lend his comforting bulk, or for Natasha to make sense of things.

But Europe called and they answered, and Steve and Clint were supposed to follow tomorrow morning.

 _“One more time, Bishop,”_ Tony said. _“What are you-WHOA”_

All three men’s spines straightened as they heard Tony’s shout, and what sounded like another explosion.

 _“She-”_ Tony was spluttering. _“She shot an arrow at me! An exploding one! Aaaannnd now she’s running.”_

“And that’s my cue,” Clint said, looking disappointed as he stood up, grabbing his bow and quiver and pulling the lever and pushing the button to get the back ramp to open. “I seriously hope she’s just being stupid and not a traitor of some kind.”

Steve also stood, and Bruce settled himself into the little extra seat behind and between the two pilots’ seats as he heard them leave.

“This is turning into a mess,” Bruce said. “Tony, you still have eyes on Bishop?”

_“No,” Tony said. “But you’re not gonna believe this: I think I’ve got eyes on Spider-Man.”_

It took a moment for that to process, but in his defense, Spider-Man had barely been spotted outside of Manhattan, forget New York entirely.

 _“Spider-Man’s here?!”_ Clint cried out in alarm.

 _“He must be one of the two unknowns we saw with Bishop and Jonas,”_ Steve said pragmatically.

Bruce sighed. As much as a small, vindictive corner of his brain that overlapped with the Other Guy’s felt happy to see the army getting a bit of their own, the rest of him knew that the Avengers and SHIELD just did not need this right now. As far as the rest of the world was concerned, the incident with the second Iron Man was a training accident and Blackhawk had been made by them to cease and desist.

While this wasn’t _the_ last thing SHIELD or the Avengers needed, it was pretty close to the top of the list.

For a few minutes, he listened to Steve reach the base, and the sound of Steve greeting the personnel and promising that they were there to help, that they were trying to pursue and contain the attackers and that they’re sorry it took so long.

He listened with dark humor at the soldiers’ initial suspicions about Clint, until Steve sheepishly explained, _“Have you heard of someone named Blackhawk?”_

 _“Wasn’t that only in New York?”_ someone asked very distantly from Steve and Clint’s comm.

 _“It was, until tonight,”_ Clint confirmed. _“Why do you think we’re here so fast? We were following them.”_

Bruce waited for the soldiers to let them through, and frowned when it didn’t happen. “Huh,” he murmured to himself as he looked at the timestamp and listened to Tony complain about all the trees making it so difficult to find Bishop.

This…Steve was a master tactician and excellent leader, and Bruce would never dismiss what Steve does or his role in the group. But that didn’t change that a huge portion of Steve’s placement in the group was about the political capital and how much the legacy of Captain America tended to grease wheels and get things done – now, more than ever. People were never particularly trusting of intelligence organizations to begin with, and that had been _before_ HYDRA tried to take over the world again. Captain America, though…

Bruce waited, but instead heard, _“Uh…the higher ups say you’re not needed?”_

Now _that_ got Bruce to sit up straighter. It was one thing if the soldiers’ superiors were doubtful that it was really Captain America and Hawkeye at their gate – that was a perfectly good reason for someone to be suspicious of a few Avengers abruptly appearing on a military base in the middle of an attack or infiltration.

To say they weren’t needed when there was clearly an attack in progress, though, was insane.

“Guys,” Bruce said quietly into the transmitter. “I’m getting a bad feeling about this.

 _“No kidding,”_ Tony said. _“I still can’t find Bishop, but I just saw another arrow coming from the direction I last saw her in.”_

 _“Corporal,”_ Clint addressed someone as, because Steve wasn’t the only former army boy on the team. _“Listen, we’re really here for the attackers on our terms – as it just so happens that they are attacking_ your compound _¸ apprehending them would happen to help you. Tell your superiors that.”_

 _“We don’t want to interfere,”_ Steve said. He was in full-on Captain America mode. Bruce still wasn’t sure whether or not it was a relief that ‘Captain America’ really was a ‘mode’ for Steve, and not the entirety of who he was. _“Or go where we’re not wanted. But we’re here for a reason that really has nothing to do with you, and we will do what’s necessary to bring them into custody. Tell your superior officers that we would all rather it be with their cooperation than not.”_

He shook his head wryly, waiting again, and was admittedly stunned when it didn’t.

 _“They…they said you are to turn around and leave the entire vicinity,”_ the soldier said, sounding just as incredulous and disbelieving as Bruce felt. _“And that if you try to move in any further, we’re to shoot you.”_

 _“We’re the real Avengers,”_ Steve started.

 _“I think they know that, sir,”_ the soldier said, sounding increasingly unsure of himself. His voice made him sound older, but in that moment he had the uncertainty of a freshly-enlisted kid. Bruce hadn’t met too many of those during his time with the military, or even on the run from the military, but he could recognize the sound of someone in authority being as confused as those around him who weren’t.

This was not good. The military as a collective was highly suspicious of the Avengers, sure, but also fairly cooperative, especially if the Avengers were only there to help and not to take over something.

This was _really_ not good.

 _“Just so you know,”_ Steve warned. _“Iron Man is here, too, and he’s already disabled one of the attackers and is in pursuit, and if that brings him into the base-”_

 _“Uh, guys?”_ Tony’s voice came over the comms. _“The vehicles are floating. And…there is a giant girl here. I’m not even being – literally, she is at least twenty feet tall and still-”_

 _“HOLY SHIT.”_ The soldier apparently saw whatever it was Tony was looking it, and Bruce frowned. A giant girl? Growing? What-

Before he could ask for a visual, though, he heard the sound of distant roaring.

Familiar roaring.

Especially since it was through a device, because the only time Bruce heard that roaring himself was when he was listening to a recording of the Other Guy. This one, this one sounded a little lighter, like it was off-key, but still, it was a sound he knew.

 _“Someone_ please _tell me Bruce dyed his hair blond since I left and is no longer in the Quinjet,”_ Tony said, sounding almost as shaken as he head coming out of his surgery.

 _“My hair is the same color it’s always been,”_ Bruce said, knowing his voice was wavering in shock and completely unable to stop it, because he knew that roar, he knew it. _“And I’m right here.”_

 _“I was afraid of that,”_ Tony said. _“Getting you my visual.”_

One of the screens up top turned, and a moment later footage streaming from Iron Man’s proverbial and literal eyes was streaming through, and in that moment Bruce didn’t think a force in the world could have moved as he saw the Hulk. Live. While he, himself, was in the Quinjet.

Except this Hulk was a little smaller than the Other Guy, and blond.

 _“You need to get the Hulk out of here, because we have orders to shoot him, too,”_ the soldier Steve and Clint were talking to said nervously.

 _“One problem,”_ Clint said. _“That’s not the Hulk. Ours is currently Doctor Banner, and babysitting the jet we came in.”_

 _“You can say you tried to shoot us,”_ Steve promised, and then there was the sound of rapid footsteps and nervous, harsh breathing as Clint and Steve ran, and then gunfire. On the screen, the footage abruptly cut out as Iron Man started flying and moving again.

Gunfire, because for some reason American military personnel were shooting Captain America, even as he was shouting that he was there to help them.

 _“Uh, this gets ‘better’,”_ Tony said. _“Bishop, Jonas, and Spider-Man are back above ground, the giant girl, Hulk the Second, and four other…I think they’re kids.”_

“Kids?” Bruce said hoarsely, eyes sightlessly locked onto the little light promising that this was, in fact, live communication on the Avengers lines and very unlikely to be the bad dream Bruce wanted this to be.

 _“Yeah,”_ Tony said.

 _“I see them,”_ Clint said, in a clipped tone of voice that told Bruce far more about where his head was at right now than any waver could have. _“Two of them, at least. One of the unknowns Bishop had in her car, and…someone who looks exactly like him. Different hair, though.”_

 _“Oh, god,”_ Steve said in his own mix of shock and horror.

 _“What?”_ Bruce asked desperately.

 _“Someone just kicked a soldier and the guy flew twenty feet away,”_ Steve said. _“I think we’re dealing with supersoldiers, here.”_

 _“Are you telling me Bishop and Jonas are working with rogue Gifteds and supersoldiers to attack a military compound?”_ Tony snapped. _“And where the hell did they get another Hulk?!”_

Another Hulk.

There was another Hulk in the world.

As if one weren’t bad enough.

“Guys,” Bruce said, shakily standing up. “I’m coming on. I don’t think you can handle all of those and the Hulk on top of that.”

 _“No kidding,”_ Clint said. _“The unknown we saw earlier appears to have super-human speed of some kind, and the other one seems to be responsible for the floating cars-”_ He sucked in a sharp breath. _“And – someone just took an arrow to the throat, and it wasn’t mine.”_

Bishop.

 _“Aaannd the new Hulk just squished someone’s entire lower body with his foot,”_ Tony said, sounding nauseous.

Bruce grabbed an ear-piece, one of the expanding ones that would stay even on the Hulk, and ran out the bay door.

~*~

Billy would honestly admit he wasn’t quite sure what was happening. If it hadn’t been for Tommy’s hand running through his hair, and the anger as he saw the burns on Billy’s neck, he probably wouldn’t have known this wasn’t a dream.

Actually, he still wasn’t sure that this wasn’t a dream.

But he went along, anyway, because even if this was a dream, it was a damn sight better than what his reality was, right now.

What his reality had been since Tommy escaped.

He wanted to go back to Tommy’s side, he wanted to find that robot that looked like Iron Man and had freed him from his collar, he-

He saw one of the soldiers that had slammed one of the girls to the floor with a rifle a few weeks ago, and Billy realized that _he wanted him dead_.

It was easy, so easy, to pick the guy up with his fucking mind and throw him into a wall – and then pull him back and slam him into the wall again, for good measure.

The only reason he didn’t do it a third time was because he heard a voice from behind shout, “On your right, Kaplan!”

He looked right and promptly dodged a guy with a stun baton, and threw him into a wall, too. Both the soldiers unconscious, he turned to see a familiar face behind him – the black guy Billy had seen when he’d first gotten here.

“Thanks,” Billy said. “What’s your name?”

“Eli, Eli Bradley,” the guy introduced himself with, before sidestepping Billy and bunching someone in the face.

That guy flew into a wall, too, and Billy stared between Bradley and the third heap of human.

Before he could try to process, though, two more guards were running at them, both with stun batons, and both summarily thrown by Billy into a wall as another guy appeared.

The cute blond guy that Billy had only seen once, who also stopped and stared between Billy, Bradley, and the unconscious bodies.

“…hi,” the guy said. “Uh, a robot told me to come this way?”

“It told me to keep _going_ this way,” a female voice snapped, and he turned to see the Hispanic looking girl running towards them, then past them, turning to gesture for them to follow her without pausing. “So let’s go!”

“There’s someone else,” Teddy started.

“And she’s right here,” a voice said, and Billy turned to see Tommy, the robot, and the blond girl who he’d only seen a grand total of twice running towards them.

“Hi,” the girl said, sounding a little breathless. “We’re getting out of here, right?”

“We sure are,” Tommy said with an almost feral looking grin.

Once upon a time, it had scared Billy, the rare times he’d seen his brother like this. Right now, though, he was so, SO glad.

“There are two more people helping us from the outside,” Tommy said. “They’re keeping everyone else busy, and one of them has a car. But we’re going to have to fight our way out.”

“Good,” the blond guy said, and was it just Billy or did his eyes just change color? He could’ve sworn they were brown, not green-

And his skin was changing color, too.

“You look like the Hulk,” he said.

“…I think I am a Hulk,” the guy said, gritting his teeth as his skin went back to normal. Billy wondered if it hurt to keep the Hulk inside. “Let’s get up there and see.”

With all of them together and free, it was…it was horrifically easy to make their way through the few hallways towards the ramp he remembered being brought down through. Billy is pretty sure he got like half the soldiers on his own, able to throw them into walls when they tried to flat out rush them the group, with a few more being thrown back by blasts that looked like Iron Man’s coming from the robot that looked like a Mardi Gras-themed Iron Man. Anyone who Billy missed, or didn’t see, or tried to sneak up on the group, either the Hispanic girl or the black guy manage to kick or punch away, or Tommy rushed _them_ with much more success than the ones trying to rush at him.

“Surface,” Tommy gasped, rubbing at his shoulder from where he’d used his speed to knock the last of the HYDRA soldiers into another wall. The hallway was littered with unconscious bodies. Billy wasn’t sure if he hoped some of them were dead. He wanted them dead, but he didn’t want to actually kill them. “We’re under a US Army base, so we’ve got a bit to go.”

“Out the front door of the building, turn right by about sixty degrees and run to the fence,” the robot said.

Billy nodded, honestly doubting he would actually remember that.

It wasn’t until they got to the top, though, that he understood why the two blond kids hadn’t been helping. He would admit to a bit of shock as he watched the guy Hulk out, because he’d only seen that on video, mostly that footage of the Hulk in the alien invasion punching out one of those space whale things. This one was – Billy didn’t know what size the Avengers’ Hulk was in real life, but he still got the idea theirs was smaller. His shirt was still in shreds, but his pants somehow managed to stay on, tearing and stretching but staying in place. Huh.

And then the girl just…grew. Grew and grew and grew, and she tugged at her shirt so that the sides were torn but the shoulders stayed intact. The low neckline on her shirt – as low as Billy’s, and he hated how it always seemed to leave most of his shoulders bare – must have been constrictive around her neck, but there was enough shirt left to keep her boobs covered. The pants stretched and stretched, and then there were tears and holes but at least they stayed on, and then the girl stopped growing – though whether she’d reached her size limit or just didn’t want to risk running into a fight naked, Billy didn’t know.

Still, he ran outside behind Tommy and the others and let loose. It felt _good_ to be able to use all of his power, and as he wanted it, and right now what he wanted was to lift up everything he could and make life as painfully difficult as possible for every soldier that had hurt him, hurt _Tommy_ , and probably hurt everyone else in their motley crew.

After that, it was kind of a blur. He was focused on trying to keep the vehicles out of reach – or dropping them on HYDRA soldiers.

Billy may not want to kill anyone, but he wasn’t stupid. HYDRA was evil and these guys wanted nothing more than Billy and his brother and their new friends to _hurt_ , to hurt and be hurt, to be weapons of mass destruction.

If they wanted a weapon of mass destruction, then that was exactly what they were going to get.

“Oh, no,” the robot – gasped? Billy turned, and stared when he saw Iron Man – and when he saw the Iron Man look-alike shoot at Iron Man.

“JONAS!” Iron Man shouted at the robot. “What the hell are you doing?”

“What are you _doing_ here?!” Jonas demanded.

Before either Iron Man or the robot – or was this another guy in another suit? – could get another word in, though, the ground by Billy exploded.

And it wasn’t the only explosion going on.

There were arrows, exploding arrows, but they were coming from two directions, and he’d heard about Hawkeye, but then who was shooting them from the other direction?

Tommy pointed towards one of the directions the arrows were coming from. “Head that way!” he whispered to Billy. “There’s a girl there, an archer, she’s helping us, too. And Spider-Man.”

“Who’s Spider-Man?” Billy asked in confusion.

“That would be me,” a voice from above said. He whirled around to see-

A guy in red and blue spandex hanging from the underside of the building. Literally, it was like his hands and feet were glued to it. But even as Billy watched, the guy just dropped, flipping once against the wall and landing neatly. “Spider-Man?” Jonas heard the black guy ask dubiously from behind them.

“That’s my name, don’t wear it out,” the guy quipped, and then he flipped himself right over their heads and somehow wrapped his legs around the neck of someone who’d apparently been sneaking up on them, and then twisted the guy over his entire body and-

Spider-Man dropped to his feet. The soldier just – dropped.

“Thanks,” Billy said, before turning his attention back to the fight. He grinned at the sound of the Hulk roaring…before realizing the roaring was coming from behind the buildings behind Billy, and the Hulk in front of him wasn’t roaring.

Oh, no.

“Uh-oh,” Tommy said, having apparently zipped around to the others and told them where to go – except the blond guy, who was just stomping around and repeatedly looking the direction of the roar.

Stomping _on_ soldiers, and though they were all soldiers Billy had seen in the complex below-ground, working for HYDRA, something in Billy’s guy still churned to see them reduced to smears of blood and bone on the ground.

Before he could think on it too much, though, a shadow from the artificial light flew over them, and then abruptly there were two Hulks duking it out, and for a moment, it felt like everyone was stopping and staring.

Two Hulks.

Billy couldn’t even process that, so he didn’t try. Instead, he looked around for any soldier he even faintly recognized and just _threw_ them, or dropped a car on them – and honestly, a small part of him couldn’t help but ask how cool it was he could drop cars on people, now.

If only he’d been able to drop a car on the bullies at school.

Billy abruptly stumbled, and it turned out to be because Tommy pushed him out of the way. He turned just in time to see an arrow embedded in the spot he’d just been in, and then Tommy was dragging him even further away and the arrow just flat-out _exploded_.

Right where Billy had been not a moment before.

“And there’s Hawkeye,” Tommy grumbled, and Billy looked up to see, yup, Hawkeye, standing on top of a truck of some kind, with an arrow pointed at them.

It was – easy, to just flip the truck over. The not insignificant of him that had cowered at school while watching the alien invasion live on his phone hoped that Hawkeye wasn’t too badly hurt, though. He was probably protected by the flatbed, right?

“Let’s go!” Tommy snapped, dragging Billy away. He had one hand wrapped around Billy’s elbow and another against the back of his neck, and then the world turned into a blur, and then suddenly, they were at the fence. “Iron Lad, need you to make a hole, here!”

Billy was about to ask how he expected the robot to hear him through the sound of increasing gunfire when he saw some kind of headset or something attached to Tommy’s ear.

Huh. Billy wondered why he hadn’t noticed that before.

“I don’t care!” Tommy said, though what he was responding to, Billy couldn’t begin to guess. “We need to get out of here! Let’s go in a different direction and try to lose everyone, first, sneak back to the car and make the real get-away-” He paused. “Fine!”

And with that, Tommy pushed him back about a dozen yards, then turned and crouched a bit. “I have to carry you for this part.”

“For what?” Billy asked, even as he wrapped his arms around Tommy’s neck and his legs around his waist. Tommy gasped, struggling to stand up, but then the world was a blur again, and Billy could feel prickling and tearing on his legs and suddenly they were on the other side of the fence, Tommy muttering an apology as he dropped Billy.

“I’ll be back,” Tommy said again, and Billy had horrible flashbacks to when Tommy had left the first time, but Tommy was over the fence again, and Billy could see all the tears in Tommy’s clothing as he stood there, helplessly watching.

“Billy?” a voice asked from behind him. “Billy Kaplan?”

He turned to see a girl there, pale in a healthy way and with dark hair – and a bow, with a quiver hanging from her hip. Billy could see, faintly, that her left arm was drenched in something – and a moment later, he realized he smelled blood…and that half her hair was matted down with it, too. Her breathing sounded off, and she limped closer to Billy.

“Yeah,” he said. “You – you’re helping us?”

“One way of putting it,” she gasped. Despite the fact her arm must hurt with all that blood, she nocked and released another arrow, right at-

“Did you just shoot Captain America?!” he said.

“Captain America was about to try and fight two of your friends,” she said, nodding towards where the black guy and the Hispanic girl were. “Listen, I can hear your brother talking. Can you – do you think you can push the Hulk away? The Avengers’ Hulk?”

Billy looked. The Hulk looked heavier than any of the cars Billy had just been throwing around, but not by much. Up until now, he hadn’t used his powers on anything heavier than half a ton at a time. But up until now, using his powers had always felt _easy_. And he’d been holding back, always pretending that using his powers was much hard than it actually was when he was around HYDRA.

It paid off, today.

“I can do you one better,” he said. “Where do you need me to throw him?”

The girl raised her eyebrows, but said, “In exactly the opposite direction of where we are now…or a little to the right.”

Billy nodded, and said, “Tell Tommy to tell – uh, our Hulk-” And wasn’t that a weird thought, needing to differentiate multiple Hulks? “-To try and put his own force into slamming the Avenger Hulk in that direction.”

The girl nodded, repeating the directions into her own earpiece thing, and then Billy turned to see the white streak of his brother zip around their Hulk, then away.

Their Hulk looked almost like he was retreating, and the Avenger Hulk roared victoriously, right up until their Hulk bum-rushed him.

It wasn’t much. The Avenger Hulk was definitely bigger, and thus probably stronger – but apparently, not that bright, because he was surprised by their own Hulk.

He only really flew due to the force of their own Hulk slamming into him back about a dozen yards, maybe up by the same amount.

But in that moment, he didn’t have ground to hold, or any control of his body, and that was all Billy needed. He knew he was flaring with that weird, red not-fire, but he managed to _throw the Hulk_ , up over the buildings and into the hangar on the other side of the compound.

There was a deafening sound of screeching metal and collapsing planes and a pained-sounded roar, but that was all the cue needed for their Hulk, the girl, and the two other kids to come running in Billy and the girl’s direction.

The Hulk tore through the fence like it was marathon finish-line tape, and the girl was already shrinking as she followed, making what had been a tiny trickle of blood down her right side and left leg as a giant seem like almost deluges as she shrunk-

-and kept shrinking, smaller than even a normal person, almost as small as a toddler.

“I need someone to carry me,” she said, clutching the over-grown and stretched out clothes to herself and sounding – Billy didn’t know if it was actual calm or just shock, but then he figured he could say the same for himself.

“I’ve got you,” the Hispanic girl said, scooping up the fun-sized blond girl like she weighed nothing at all, before turning to the third girl who was apparently ripping off Hawkeye. “Where to?”

Bishop pointed. “I’ve got a car. Uh, Hulk? Or – whatever. You’re gonna have to shrink down to fit.”

Their Hulk nodded, and everyone turned, ready to go.

“Wait!” Billy said, pointing back to the base.

“Iron Lad and Sp-your brother are going to lead everyone away,” the girl promised, sounding more and more breathless as they started running despite Billy’s protests. “We’re meeting up with them down the road. They know where we’re going.”

“And where is that, exactly?” the black guy asked.

“Some doctor in D.C.,” the girl said, before turning to Billy. “You guys met her when you were looking for your mom or something?”

Billy swallowed, remembering that dream/nightmare of a day. The only person they could track down as being connected to their mother somehow had been a Dr. Linda Carter.

He and Tommy had gone to her, expecting some story about their mom being a pregnant teenager or a hooker or something. Instead...

They’d left with vague plans to continue the search, but then the fight happened, and all the court battles, and suddenly their birth mom just didn’t matter-

And then HYDRA turned out to be alive inside SHIELD, and the world had fallen to pieces.

“Yeah,” Billy said. “I know where she is.”

“We’re headed there,” the girl gasped out.

Billy gave her an appraising look, then turned to their Hulk. “She needs to be carried, too.”

The girl looked ready to fight, but their Hulk scooped her up before she could protest, and apparently knowing time was of the essence, just pointed.

Within a moment, the others had either run way, way, _way_ ahead of them, or leaped ahead of them, but either way, they all stopped within moments while Billy started running something like a hundred meters up to them.

“Hold on,” he said, and concentrated on – on himself, trying to think of his body as being just another object to move around.

It was weird to think of his body as being, well, not him. But it worked – he could feel his feet leaving the ground, and he was lifting, he was rising-

_He was flying._

“Now, let’s go,” Billy said. And this time, he was able to keep up. Behind him, he could hear the sounds of explosions, gun fire, and screaming and shouting.

But that noise wasn’t following them.

And somehow, that was the moment Billy realized that they were free.

~*~


	6. Walk and Talk

~*~

Eli wondered vaguely how good of a driver the girl was when she wasn’t bleeding out from multiple wounds. She could be good, but given how nice the car was, maybe she was just rich enough for everyone to pretend she was a good driver.

The front was even a bench seat. Who the hell had two rows of bench seats?

But he figured it wasn’t fair to judge her for nearly crashing the car into the freeway railing when she tried to pull over, since she seemed like she could barely hold her head up and Eli could _hear_ that there was something wrong with her breathing.

“What’s wrong?” the growing/shrinking girl asked from Chavez’ lap in the front seat. Eli still couldn’t get over the fact she was a full teenage girl and less than a foot tall. “Why are we stopping?”

“Meeting…the boys…here…” the driving girl said, before squinting and looking at something on the road, then nodding. “Here.”

“…is there anyone else here who knows how to drive?” Eli asked around the car. “Because I’m pretty sure…” He frowned, realizing he didn’t even know the girl’s name. “I’m pretty sure she’s about to pass out,” he said, figuring it was pretty obvious who he was talking to. “And what’s your name?”

“Blackhawk,” the girl murmured. “Or Kate. Kate Bishop.”

“I know how to drive,” Chavez said.

Eli nodded. “Are you hurt?”

Chavez snorted. “Scrapes and bruises, nothing that will still be here by tomorrow morning.”

She sounded bitter about it, and given Eli’s own feelings about what HYDRA’s done to his body, he supposed he didn’t blame her.

He turned to where Glowing Red and Holy Shit Another Hulk were crammed into the seats beside him – though thankfully, they were right now neither glowing nor a Hulk.

That said…

“Bishop?” he asked. “Weren’t there three other guys? This car is full already.”

“One flies,” she said, pushing herself up. He had to give her credit for how much she was holding herself together despite the amount wrong with her he could see, hear – even smell, that much blood was hard to miss in such a confined space. “Other two…” she frowned. “Tight fit. But this was all I had to work with.” She swallowed. “And one of them might be able to just run alongside the car, anyway.”

“Not for long,” Glowing Boy chimed in. “The faster he goes, the less time he can sustain that speed.”

“We can’t drive fast, anyway,” Kate said. “Too much attention.” __

Eli nodded again, then looked around. “Also – what the hell is everyone’s name? Mine is Eli, Eli Bradley. But call me Eli.”

“Cassie,” shrinking girl said. “Cassie Lang.”

“Chavez,” Chavez said. Eli only knew her name from how many times he’s heard the guards shouting it. “Some people call me Rikki. Don’t ask what my first name is, though.”

“Teddy Altman,” Hulk-guy said.

“Billy Kaplan,” glowing-boy said. “And my brother is Tommy Shepherd.”

Eli frowned. “You guys look like twins.”

“We are,” Kaplan said. “We were both born Shepherd, moved through a few foster families before getting adopted by one for good. I changed my name, he didn’t want to.”

“The robot is Jonas Vision,” Bishop said. “The one in spandex…probably wouldn’t appreciate me giving you his name.”

“I think I can just ask him myself,” Eli said, squinting into the forest. “Because I think that’s them right now.”

It was, at the very least, the white streak Eli already figured out was Kaplan’s brother, and when that white streak stopped barely two yards from the car, the robot – dropped, because apparently he’d been hovering or something while Shepherd pushed him.

Bishop hissed as she took them in, and Eli couldn’t blame them. Shepherd was cut up and bruised, while the robot…Eli could see some bullet holes and his arm and leg had gashes big enough that Eli could see the wiring.

Eli was sitting on the end of the seat, so he pushed the door open and stepped out to get a closer look at the guys.

“Is everyone okay?” the robot asked, and whatever he used to talk must have been damaged, too – earlier he’d sounded almost human, but now he sounded a lot more robotic.

“Everyone except her,” Eli said, pointing to Bishop, who was painstakingly pushing her own door open as the other two guys climbed out of the back. From the other side, the other two girls climbed out, Cassie growing to normal height as she did.

“I’ll be fine,” Bishop said, looking at the others. “What about you guys? Jonas, can you fly? And where’s P-Spider-Man?”

“He’ll be here in a minute, he’s leaving a false trail of webbing,” Shepherd said. “Kate, anyone else injured?”

“The rest of us are variations of superhuman,” Eli said. “We’re all a bit banged up, but we’ll be fine.” He frowned, then looked between the robot – Vision – and the car. “Though fitting everyone in there will be a tight squeeze.”

“We can share a seat,” Kaplan immediately said, gesturing between himself and Shepherd. “And – Cassie? Cassie can shrink.”

“And someone is going to need to hold Bishop up when she passes out,” Chavez said sardonically.

“I’m not-” Abruptly, Bishop shut her eyes and sagged against the door. “Okay. Maybe I am. Just a nap. That’s all I need.”

“…uh-huh,” Eli said disbelievingly.

“Spider-Man?” Lang asked.

“Originally not supposed to come,” Shepherd said. “He was gonna – he could go home.”

“But if we were followed by the Avengers,” Bishop said. “Then probably not.”

“So we’re gonna be trying to fit how many people in here?” Eli asked incredulously. “And where are we going? And-” He frowned. “If Spider-Man can go home-”

“His situation _was_ different,” Bishop said. “We needed to get you out of there, and the plan had been to bring you to the Avengers, because they would help once they knew the truth.”

“They just attacked us,” Eli said shortly. “ _Why?_ ”

“I’m sure it was a misunderstanding,” the robot said immediately. He was leaning on Shepherd at this point. “I was made, in part, by Iron Man. He wouldn’t-”

“He’s the reason I’m like this,” Bishop growled, gesturing at herself. The robot stopped, then shook his head disbelievingly.

“No,” he started. “Tony would never _do_ that-”

“He just did!” Bishop said. Apparently, she was more worked up about her injuries than she was letting on.

“Where are we even going to go, then?” Chavez demanded.

“We can’t go back to our families,” Billy said. “HYDRA will be watching them, waiting for us.”

“That was why we were _supposed_ to go the Avengers,” Vision started.

“Well we _can’t!_ ” Shepherd snapped.

“Look,” Eli said, swallowing a lump around his throat as he thought of his own home. Grandma and Grandpa – did they think he ran away? Or that he was dead? Black boys disappear from bad parts of town all the time, and Eli had done his absolute best to stay away from that shit and Grandma and Grandpa knew that, right?

But then, maybe it wouldn’t matter. All that Project Rebirth bullshit that had happened and not-happened to Grandpa…maybe it was better they didn’t know that Eli had become what Grandpa was supposed to be.

“We’ve got to take this one step at a time,” Eli said. “Some of us are injured. All of us are tired and hungry. Let’s focus on getting everyone into the car and getting somewhere safe, first. Then we can figure this shit out.”

“It’s a party car,” Bishop said, twisting her lips wryly. “Supposed to hold lots of people. We’ll fit. Tight squeeze, but we’ll fit.”

Eli opened his mouth to ask what the hell a ‘party car’ was, when he heard the sounds of movement from behind him. He – and everyone else – turned around, only to see the guy in spandex apparently jump from the top of a three-story high tree, flip twice mid-air, and land neatly in the grass just on the other side of the railing Bishop nearly crashed into.

For a moment, everyone stared because – _what?!_

But then he remembered Glowing Boy and Speedy Boy and Robot and Other Hulk and Other Super Soldier and Shrinking Girl.

Really, the spandex was probably weirder than the flipping.

“Spider-Man, right?” Eli asked.

“Yeah,” Spider-Man said, before rounding angrily on Bishop. “And you said-”

“I know what I said!” she snapped. “I didn’t expect the _Avengers_ to follow us or attack us!”

“…what if they have my picture?” Spider-Man snapped. “They can ID me! They can go after my aunt, or my girlfriend, or they’ll kidnap me-”

“The Avengers aren’t HYDRA!” Vision snapped. “They won’t-”

“They work with SHIELD!” Spider-Man snapped.

“Didn’t SHIELD turn out to _be_ HYDRA?” Eli asked, getting increasingly confused.

“No,” Vision said, just as Spider-Man and Shepherd said, “Yes.”

“SHIELD was infected with HYDRA,” Vision continued. “But there are still good people, and HYDRA and SHIELD are two separate things-”

“In theory,” Kaplan said. “And it’s a nice theory.”

“But we live in the real world,” Shepherd continued.

“We have to trust someone!” Vision said, his voice sounding more and more like a prolonged beep as he got more agitated.

“No, actually, we don’t,” Chavez said.

“Then what do you propose we do?” Vision said.

“What I just said we should do,” Eli said, stepping between Shepherd and Bishop, and everyone else. “Get in the car and get the hell out of here. I don’t know kind of false trails and stuff you left, but the army and the Avengers both want to capture us, and we’re still, what, less than a dozen miles away from the base?”

“They’ll be scrambling whatever aircraft aren’t damaged, soon,” Vision admitted quietly.

“We had a plan to go to D.C.,” Shepherd said. “There was a doctor I was gonna take everyone to – she helped me and Billy, once, and I figure if there is anyone who’ll patch us up without trying to call the cops, it’ll be her.”

“All right,” Eli said, looking around at everyone. “So we get in the car, go to D.C., and try to get ourselves patched up as best as we can. We can work out the details there.”

“Who died and made you king?” Chavez asked.

“ _Somebody_ has to get us going,” Eli muttered. “Now c’mon, let’s get everyone into the car. Chavez, take the wheel.”

Bishop looked indignant, but didn’t argue, instead stepping away so Chavez could, indeed, take the wheel. “There’s a few duffel bags in the back. Most of them are like, sleeping bags and some crappy one-size-fits-all type clothes, but one of them should have food, and another should have some first aid type stuff in there.”

In the end, it was an incredibly tight fit. Vision, Shepherd, and Billy all promised they could get out and keep up with the car, but not for long. Any other car, and Eli probably would have had to set up some kind of shift system to get everyone going. But after everyone changed into overlarge white sweatshirts and black sweatpants with drawstrings at the ankles and the waist, everyone – _everyone_ – looked ready to collapse.

And if he were being honest – Eli didn’t want to risk anyone just getting lost or being separated for too long.

But it turned out okay. The twins were both slender enough to just share a seat in the back by the window. Eli took the seat on the other end, with Altman in the middle and the broken Vision laid out in their laps and half into the floor, neatly obscuring him from view of any passing cops. Up front, Spider-Man took the other window seat while Bishop sat in the slim space leftover between them. The bench seat was ridiculous, but it was a boon for them. Lastly, Lang shrunk down and apparently sat on the seat between Bishop’s legs, partially holding her up but mostly also staying below the level of the bottom of the windows.

The drive was much smoother, this time, now that the driver was fully conscious and not about to collapse from potentially mortal injuries. Along with holding Bishop up, Lang and Spider-Man were using some first aid stuff on Bishop, while they passed around another kit in the back, along with a bunch of protein bars and Gatorade.

“So,” Eli said, as Shepherd started rattling off directions to Chavez. “Spider-Man – what’s your name?”

The guy froze for a moment, but then…then he reached up and pulled off the mask, or really the hood.

Eli wondered why he was surprised that the guy was another kid.

“Peter,” he said. “Peter Parker.”

~*~

Linda Carter had worked with SHIELD for more than half her life. She’s stopped being shocked a long time ago, before she’d even finished her medical degree. Her nursing rotation, alone, made her the vanguard of some of SHIELD’s darkest and weirdest secrets.

They didn’t call her the ‘Night Nurse’ for nothing. 

Still, she was thrown for a loop when she opened her door in the middle of the night to see half a dozen teenagers standing on her stoop.

Especially when she realized she knew who two of them were.

“Billy?” she asked in surprise. “ _Tommy_?”

“Hi, Dr. Carter,” Billy said, a little sheepishly. He and Tommy stepped back to reveal a young man carrying an unconscious young woman in his arms with disconcerting ease.

Suspicious ease, actually. Something which the kids seemed to know, if the way the other kids angling themselves to block her from street view with their bodies was anything to go by.

“We could use some help,” Tommy said.

Linda opened her mouth to say something, then closed it. She shook her head, flooded by memories of many an operative who came to her in the dark of night, needing medical attention and knowing no one else who could (or would) help.

She stood back, making room for the kids to slip in.

“Quickly,” she said. “Before anyone else sees you.”

As they swiftly but warily trooped in, Linda realized that while she was caught off guard, she still wasn’t shocked, maybe not even all that surprised. She’d been expecting something like this for a while.

Ever since the twin teenage ghosts of Wanda and Pietro first showed up on her doorstep over a year and a half ago, she’d been expecting something to break. The only thing she hadn’t anticipated, really, was that it would break this spectacularly.

She really should have known better than to tell the boys the truth about their mother.

~*~

Even before being captured by HYDRA, Eli had never been the most trusting of doctor types, and this Dr. Carter person was no exception. But Bishop had left behind her home and broken into a HYDRA military base to rescue a bunch of people she didn’t know – and she didn’t even have superpowers.

And now she needed help.

Eli supposed that wasn’t necessarily a reason to _trust_ a doctor, but it was a good enough reason to let one take care of her. Besides, at least now he knew who, out of everyone, to keep an eye on.

He followed the doctor down a hardwood-floored hallway and into a homely looking living room. A gigantic TV with a fancy looking sound system took up one side of the wall, where something fantasy-looking was paused on screen. There was an old-looking coffee table that Carter pushed a bit away from the couches. The couches themselves were leather, but covered in throw pillows and fleece blankets – two of which the doctor unfolded and covered the biggest couch with before gesturing for Eli to set her down.

If this woman was a SHIELD doctor, it figured she was rich – and while all of it was blood money, the real question was how much of it she _knew_ was blood money.

Still, right now may not be the best time to ask those kinds of questions.

“Just wait a moment,” she said. “I have to go upstairs to get my med kit,” Dr. Carter said, rolling up the sleeves of her house robe. “And if one of you is going to follow me upstairs to make sure, do me a favor and take your shoes off, I just got the carpet cleaned.”

Eli didn’t know whether to be pissed that she was worrying about her carpet with an injured woman on her couch…or impressed that half a dozen beat-up teenagers showed up like fugitives in her home and the only thing she was worried about was the carpet.

Well, he supposed they weren’t exactly mutually exclusive feelings.

He jerked his head at Shepherd. “You’re the fastest if she tries something.”

To his credit, the guy just nodded and followed her, obligingly toeing off his shoes at the foot of the stairs before following her up.

Once Eli heard them reach the second floor, he turned to Kaplan. “Are you _sure_ she can be trusted?”

“Yeah,” Kaplan said, crossing his arms. “She told us about our mom before SHIELD collapsed and revealed HYDRA.”

“What about your mom?” Chavez asked, eyes narrowed.

“…she worked at SHIELD,” Kaplan said. “Lots of really sensitive stuff…” He paused, looked down at his shoes, and added, “Probably why me and Tommy have our powers, now.”

Eli’s face darkened. “They were experimenting on you before you were even born?”

“We don’t really know,” Kaplan said. “Me and Tommy always thought our mom was probably a hooker or teen mom or something. But then we started trying to find her and found Dr. Carter, and she said our mom was SHIELD.”

“SHIELD, or…?” Teddy said carefully.

Kaplan shrugged. “She gave birth to us, named us, and disappeared. She was dead a month later, her and her twin brother.” He paused. “That made a lot more sense once it turned out SHIELD was actually HYDRA.”

“SHIELD is _not_ HYDRA,” Jonas said immediately, his voice taking on that beep-y quality again. “SHIELD was _infected_ with HYDRA and now it’s-”

“Probably not much different from before,” Eli pointed out.

Before anyone could say anymore, Dr. Carter came down with an overlarge briefcase, Shepherd right behind her and carrying a bucket with one hand and a bunch of towels under his other arm. Her house-robe was gone, leaving her in some button-up flannel pajamas of some kind that were probably about to get very, _very_ bloody.

“I’m going to have to pull off some of her clothes to see the wounds,” Carter said, she and Shepherd setting everything down on the coffee table. “I’ll keep as much of it on her as I can, but in the interests of preserving her privacy-”

“We’re not all too concerned about that, right now,” Eli said curtly. “We’re not leaving her alone with you.”

Carter nodded, seeming unsurprised. “Well in that case, any of you have anything approaching first aid or medical experience? I presume you’ll want to help to keep a close eye on what I do.”

For a moment, they all looked at each other a bit awkwardly, but finally, it was Altman who nudged the table aside and crouched into the area by the couch.

“Given the rest of you look like hell, too,” Carter said, eying all of them carefully. All of them were either in the terrible sweatshirts and sweatpants that none of them fit, or they were in clothes torn up to hell and back. “You might as well use the stuff in the box. You – what’s your name? Or what do you want me to call you by?”

She looked right at Altman, who apparently didn’t understand the concept of being in hiding because he immediately blurted out, “Teddy.”

“Teddy,” she said wryly. “Hold her arm just above the elbow, and move it _exactly_ as I tell you to…”

She and Teddy started working, with Carter narrating her every move. Apparently, she was used to dealing with people who couldn’t trust doctors, and she seemed largely unconcerned with everyone hovering around them as she set to work on Bishop.

Eli and Chavez leaned against the arms of the couch. Lang stood on the other side of the coffee table, handing Carter things, the twins squeezed themselves into one arm chair, while the android – Jonas? – took the other one, Spider-Man helping him repair whatever was wrong with his arm.

The guy could barely move, and Eli didn’t think Carter could fix him.

Eli was barely sure she could fix Bishop.

~*~

As soon as Natasha and Thor landed outside the building Tony had directed them to, Steve strode out, looking paler than the day she found him hunched over in her living room, staring sightlessly at the photos of the Winter Soldier project and begging her to tell him he’d gotten the translations wrong. (He hadn’t.)

“How bad is this?” Natasha asked, pulling off the scarf and goggles she wore when flying with Sam, Thor, or Tony, and tucking them into her flight-friendly backpack.

“It makes Chicago look splendid,” Clint said from behind Steve, and Thor and Natasha both stared at them.

Their drawn, tight faces, the swarming SHIELD and military personnel around them, and the fact that Bruce apparently refused to leave the Quinjet, huddled up in his post-Hulk blanket…

“You’re not joking,” Natasha said. Neither of them had even changed since last night’s battle, let alone gotten anything approaching rest.

“We’re not even exaggerating,” Clint said, shaking his head and looking haunted.

“I heard something about another Hulk?” she asked. “Please, tell me I misheard that.”

This time, it was Steve who shook his head, turning to go back into the building and gesturing for them to follow him. “I wish. But no – they turned a teenager into another Hulk.”

“So HYDRA has perfected a way to create their own Hulks?” Thor asked in worry.

“No,” Steve said. “They got lucky.”

“According to HYDRA’s records,” Clint said darkly. “The kid, Theodore Altman – he got some kind of internship or something at Sterns’ lab, and he was there when the Hulk and the Abomination duked it out. Somehow, he got infected with the blood."

Natasha pursed her lips at the ramp that had apparently been hidden behind a supply cabinet of some kind.

“I don’t know if this is better or worse than the elevator,” Steve muttered. “But – there’s an entire facility underneath this base.”

“And we never knew about it.”

She turned to see a military office striding towards them, one everyone was deferring to.

“Colonel Talbot?” she asked in surprise. The guy Coulson had complained so much about? The one who made recovery so hard for SHIELD for so long?

He didn’t look like some kind of blood-thirsty military politician, or any of the other creative descriptions Coulson had regaled her and Clint with.

He looked like a worn-down and haunted old man. And apparently, he was.

“Two of my majors and my lieutenant colonel were HYDRA,” he said. “Three men I trusted, they…they…”

“We understand, sir,” Steve said. “Believe me – some of the people I thought were good friends were HYDRA all along.”

“We know a thing or two about betrayal,” Clint piped up.

“I spent so much time trying to hunt down HYDRA,” the man said, staring apprehensively down the ramp. “And they were literally under my nose the whole time.”

“That’s how they operate,” Natasha said. Whatever the past misgivings, Steve seemed to think that they should be making nice with the colonel now. For all that he hated politics, he still had a damn good mind for it, and Natasha was willing to take his lead on at least this much.

“It is the mark of true cowardice,” Thor said. “That they cannot even champion themselves in the open, but must resort to such underhanded means just to break the surface.”

“Have you been down there?” Natasha asked of all three men. The colonel, Steve, and Clint all nodded.

“Tony’s down there, now,” Steve said. “Let’s go.”

She turned to follow him, but stopped when she heard Talbot said, “Romanoff.”

Surprised, she turned back to him. What the hell would he want with _her_?

“…pass along my apology to Coulson, would you?” he asked.

Natasha looked him over.

“No,” she said. She could feel Steve tense beside her, and even Thor looked surprised – at least until she said, “You should tell him that, yourself.”

Talbot sighed – he had apparently not been expecting much. “I understand. At least let me know when you find any trace of those kids?”

Natasha narrowed her eyes, and she wondered if this was why Steve had requested she come here. She glanced back at Thor – even despite species and cultural differences, he was often a good judge of character. Maybe not as specific or thorough as Natasha, but sometimes she missed the forest for the trees.

Case in point, missing HYDRA despite all her suspicion of SHIELD when she’d been brought in.

Thor also examined him closely, and only now was Talbot starting to look indignant. This was not a man used to being wrong, or being in the wrong. He was not used to apologies, and when he did say sorry, people were grateful.

Yet it seemed even he had standards, and apparently even he could feel guilty about having let several children be tortured beneath his feet and on his watch.

Thor nodded at her, and Natasha looked back at Talbot.

It wasn’t his fault. Despite all the grief he was causing Coulson, the reality was HYDRA would have been here with or without his little feud with the new-SHIELD. It wasn’t his fault.

But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t exploit his guilt for all it was worth.

“Sure,” she said. “And we’ll track down the rest of the bastards who did this to them, and make sure they pay for this, for betraying you.”

There, there was that vindictive smirk she’d last soon in the footage of him ordering raids on Coulson.

“But,” she continued. “We can’t do that with you or your people obstructing us. I don’t blame you for distrusting SHIELD – but we worked there, and we were hit hardest by all the betrayals. Do you really think we would trust the new SHIELD so lightly, if we didn’t fully believe it was committed to fighting HYDRA?”

She got the feeling Talbot knew full well what she was doing, that she was manipulating him. But either he had a bigger game in mind, or he was just guilty enough not to care, because he said, “As the Avengers, you can have full access to everything on base needed for the investigation. SHIELD, too…under the Avengers’ supervision.”

It was a genuine struggle to keep her surprise to herself.

“Of course, Colonel,” she said. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

For some reason, he got a pinched look at that, but nodded, and turned around to start redirecting personnel.

“So,” Steve said, and yup, he brought her in to analyze the people. “You think he’s the real deal?”

“He’s probably still playing games,” she said, turning on her heel to continue down the ramp into HYDRA’s abyss. “But I think the guilt is genuine. His vendetta against SHIELD was one of righteousness, and he feels righteous about children being tortured in his own domain.”

“…I was afraid of that,” Clint muttered, and Natasha would have to ask him about the details later. “May and FitzSimmons are landing in a few minutes, I’mna go meet with them.”

Clint strode off, and if it weren’t for the fact he was still holding his bow in a white-knuckled grip, he looked almost okay and ready to take on the world.

Or at least ready to take on the kind of bastards that thought experimenting on children would make the world a better place.

“So,” Natasha said, following Steve and leading Thor into the facility. “To summarize, HYDRA got in so deep that even the leading anti-SHIELD military officer is letting SHIELD have free reign of his own military compound, several children have been tortured and experimented on, and we’ve somehow messed up handling the entire situation so badly that we managed make the Chicago debacle look like it went well, after _losing_ several superpowered teenagers on the lam.” They turned down a hallway crawling with shell-shocked military personnel and some of Coulson’s more trusted but distant agents. “Did I miss anything?”

“Yup.”

She turned to see Tony poking his head out of a door way a few dozen meters down the hall. She strode down towards him and went into what turned out to be some kind of computer room.

“What did I miss?” she asked tightly.

“We still don’t know the process by which Altman was stabilized,” Tony said, gesturing to a screen without looking at it. “But we know how he got that process in the first place – or rather, how someone else got it for him.”

Natasha stared at the HYDRA personnel record on the screen.

“Oh, god,” Steve said in horror.

“Yeah,” Tony said. “No way in hell we're getting those kids to trust us after this.”

~*~

“She should rest,” Dr. Carter said as she finished patching up Bishop – though Rikki supposed she should call her Kate after having spent almost three hours with the girl slumped against her. “But she’ll be fine. How are all of you doing?”

Everyone looked amongst themselves, and but it appeared no one had anything that various first aid kits – and accelerated, super-human healing – couldn’t take care of.

Except Vision.

“We’re fine,” Bradley said. “As much as we can be, for the situation.”

His attempt at bravado was ridiculous.

“And what, exactly, is this situation?” Dr. Carter asked, looking between the twins and the rest of them.

“We would really like to know that,” Shepherd said.

“It’s a long story,” Kaplan added.

“Did you know that SHIELD was HYDRA when we talked to you?” Shepherd demanded

“No!” Dr. Carter said immediately. “I sure as hell wouldn’t have kept working for SHIELD if I’d known. I never knew why your mom and uncle had been killed.” Then she looked down at all the medical supplies still strewn across the coffee table. “I still don’t.”

The twins exchanged a dark look, and Rikki stepped forward, trying to get everyone’s attentions on her. “We lost the people chasing us,” she said carefully, mindful of the fact Dr. Carter wasn’t even pretending not to listen as she cleaned up. “And we got Bishop patched up. Since the rest of us can heal on our own, it’s just Vision we need to fix.”

“You can all me Jonas, you know,” he said. “And – I don’t…I can’t…” He paused, and looked up at the ceiling. “I do not believe going back to New York like this is a good idea.”

“Is there any other way or person to get you fixed up?” Rikki said. “I don’t think any of us are prepared to go anywhere or do anything until we know you can back us up.”

“…there might be,” Jonas said softly. “But it’s…kind of far away.”

“How far away are we talking?” Eli asked.

Jonas looked warily at Dr. Carter, and Rikki took the hint.

“Shepherd,” Eli said. “Can you get us some food without anyone seeing you? Maybe that bag from the car?”

“I can do you one better,” Tommy said. “Bishop loaded up on cash before all this, just in case. How do you guys feel about Panda Express? Any allergies?”

Even if any of them had any allergies, she doubted there were any left after what HYDRA had done to them. Everyone shook their head, and Eli glanced as Bishop, but Shepherd would probably know about any problems on her end better than any of them.

“Get a party platter,” Altman said dryly. “Or three.”

Rikki snorted at that.

“Got it!” Shepherd said, smirking himself, before turning to where Parker was poking at something in Vision’s shoulder. “You? Anything?”

“If you could find a pocket toolkit,” Jonas said. “And a prepaid cellphone – we need the parts.”

“Pocket toolkit, prepaid phone, and Panda express, got it,” Shepherd said.

“You sure Bishop can cover it?” Bradley asked.

“Yup!” Shepherd said. He glanced at Dr. Carter, shrugged at Kaplan, and then was just – gone, leaving nothing but a streak of fading white light behind him.

It was so tiny compared to everything else Rikki had seen everyone else do tonight, but Dr. Carter was gaping at the spot where Tommy had been, anyway.

“Where – where did he go?!” she demanded incredulously, looking wildly around the room.

It was then that Rikki realized they’d all been looking and acting like normal kids all night long.

They looked at each other awkwardly, and Bradley looked to Kaplan for an answer.

Kaplan sighed.

“When I said it was a long story,” he started saying. His hands and eyes glowed pinkish-red as the supplies on the table started floating into the air. Dr. Carter stumbled and had to sit back on the arm of the couch Bishop was asleep in, reaching out but not quite touching her levitating stuff. “I wasn’t kidding.”

~*~

What had started as Billy and Shepherd explaining their story to everyone somehow turned into sharing hour for most of the others, too. Shepherd had returned with the food, and the stuff for Vision. They were all sprawled out in the living room, with Bishop still asleep on the couch. Dr. Carter sat in one of the armchairs, while Jonas sat in the other, Peter helping him do something to his leg.

The rest of them were on the floor, digging into their food. It was just cheap Chinese take-out, but after months of HYDRA’s idea of a diet, it felt like the most delicious thing Teddy had ever tasted.

“…was really sick, as a kid,” Eli said. “So my grandpa gave me some bone-marrow. He didn’t get cancer until right after that, but I was fine. A bunch of SHIELD doctors came to my grandpa, because of his medical stuff with the SSR, but then they just left and we took care of it on our own.”

Eli stared into his chow-mein bitterly. “I guess he was ‘defunct’ to them. The worst thing was that after they left, the cancer progressed, but…”

“But?” Chavez - Rikki, like she told them to call her - asked.

“He…he started to get faster, and stronger, even when the brain tumors grew and he started losing some brain functions,” he said. “We took out the tumors and they managed to stop any more from growing, but now he can’t talk ever again, and he…has other problems. But he can lift up an entire motorbike all on his own and can run faster than some of the track kids at my school.”

“Did you your family tell SHIELD?” Dr. Carter asked.

“No,” Eli snorted. “Grandpa refused at first, and later Grandma said it was safer, that nothing good would come of letting the government know about it. At first I thought it saved us when SHIELD turned out to be HYDRA…but then one day when I was talking home from school, well-”

“Eli…” Rikki said, staring wide-eyed. “Was your grandpa’s name Isaiah?”

Eli stared back. “Yeah,” he said slowly. “How-”

“Was he a bone-marrow donor? Besides giving some to you you?”

“Yeah,” Eli said. “He donated twice, once to me and once to…a girl in Los Angeles…”

Teddy got a sinking feeling in his gut.

“¡Manda huevos!” she abruptly spat out.

“You were the girl in Los Angeles?” Eli said, sounding as horrified as Teddy felt.

“Yeah,” she said. “Now I know why HYDRA took me. I never understood it. I thought it was just the wrong place and wrong time or something…” She paused. “Though now comes the question of how the hell they found me.”

“What do you mean?”

“After my moms died,” she said. “I had one grandparent left, and he took me in and spent a year trying to convince me his daughter was evil for living in sin with another woman. I got so pissed off, I left and never looked back.”

“Where did you go?” Billy asked.

“Here, there,” Rikki said evasively. “Mostly stuck around L.A., even kept going to school – shit like this happened all the time in the neighborhood we lived in.”

“How old were you when you left?” Shepherd asked. Where Billy sounded concerned, Shepherd sounded impressed, and Teddy knew there was a story there – something beyond the fact their mom was doing something with SHIELD that may have been the reason why HYDRA kidnapped them.

“Sixteen,” she said. “I’d been on the streets a few months by the time HYDRA kidnapped me. I thought it was because they saw me stepping out of one of those youth shelters or something, and knew no one would miss me.”

“So you two got bone marrow from someone who’d gotten an incomplete Project Rebirth treatment,” Dr. Carter said, gesturing between Rikki and Eli, before turning to the twins. “Your birth-mother’s work probably had something to do with why HYDRA took an interest in you.” She turned to Peter. “Not HYDRA, but possibly indirectly connected to HYDRA through an OsCorp experiment gone both wrong and right.” She turned to Cassie. “Your father worked on the Pym particles with SHIELD, and you got blasted with some during HYDRA’s global attack.”

“He tried to protect me,” Cassie said defensively.

Dr. Carter’s face grew inexplicably stiff at that, but she nodded, and turned to Jonas. “You’re set to be the next Iron Man.”

Jonas snorted. “Not anytime soon.”

“But eventually,” she said. “Which just leaves…”

Teddy froze when everyone turned to him.

“How’d you end up being a _Hulk_?” Billy asked in curiosity.

Teddy managed to stretch out how long it took him to chew his current bite of noodles, but everyone just waited for him to speak. He swallowed, and stared into his flat soda, trying to figure out how to explain…without actually giving anything away.

“I had one of those ‘young scholars’ internships for high school freshmen,” Teddy said, choosing his words carefully. “My mom…wanted me to get more interested in school, so she pulled some strings and got me an internship with a research lab in Harlem. But the lead researcher had a side project involving the Hulk’s blood. So when the Hulk himself and that other one – the Abomination? – showed up…there was lots of broken glass cutting me up, and some of the blood packs broke.”

Luckily, he didn’t have to spell out that part, how he probably only got a trace of Hulk blood in his system but it was _enough_.

“And then?” Tommy asked.

Teddy swallowed, feeling a lump that was unfortunately not the food.

“I…my mom got me some treatment. And I guess I thought that it had been a close call and everything was fine, until SHIELD collapsed, and then, well, I got taken by HYDRA and…I guess they knew about it.”

There. Neatly avoiding everything about his parents, about his mom.

Or maybe he should stop thinking about her as his mom. Maybe she was just a ‘mother’ all along. Or maybe a handler?

But she’d been his mom, first…hadn’t she?

“I’m sorry,” Dr. Carter said. Her eyes were already red from when she broke down crying after listening to Tommy explain how he escaped some superpowered SHIELD prison, only to get captured by HYDRA when he went to Billy. “For all of you. You’re all so young-”

“Are you gonna cry again?” Tommy asked, sounding comically scared again. Dr. Carter laughed wetly. Teddy was grateful that everyone was too busy staring at her warily to notice how much Teddy was trying not to cry, either.

No one knew if they could go back to their families, yet, so no one was talking about it. Teddy dreaded when they did, though, because that would mean admitting he had no family left to go to.

“And her?” Dr. Carter asked, gesturing towards Kate.

“She’s a big Hawkeye fan,” Shepherd deadpanned.

They all waited.

“...And?” Teddy eventually asked, glad to keep his voice steady.

“And that’s it,” Shepherd said with a shrug. “No superpowers, no enhancements, nothing. She has a lot of training and experience in, like karate and some other stuff, and archery, but that’s about it.”

Everyone stared at him.

“You’re fucking with us, right?” Teddy asked.

“He isn’t,” Peter said. “I’ve been working with her. She’s like a weird, teenage-girl version of Batman. She’s got a lot of training and a lot of money, so she can get good equipment.”

“She’s been assaulted.”

They all turned to Jonas, who was staring at the table, almost sightlessly.

“I won’t got into the details,” Jonas said. “But she was attacked, once, and there was no one to rescue her. And she wants to save as many people as possible from that same experience.”

“But…” Dr. Carter waved a fork around incredulously. “Are you sure she has no…modifications? Not even drugs, steroids?”

“If she does, she’s hidden it very, very well,” Peter said. “But I’m pretty sure she’s just the real deal.”

“I’m _boss_ is what I am.”

Everyone jerked at the soft voice coming from the couch, and they all looked to see that Kate’s eyes were opened to slits, looking between them all. “This looks cozy.”

“Ms. Bishop?” Dr. Carter said, setting her food aside and moving to kneel in front of Kate.

“That’s me,” Kate said tiredly, blinking as she opened her eyes even more. “What happened?”

“We got to D.C.,” Tommy said. “And Dr. Carter patched you up. And then we got food and shared our tragic pasts.”

“I don’t have a tragic past,” Kate said, sitting up.

“Your dad didn’t care about you being Blackhawk and you were apparently assaulted in the past, somehow,” Peter said. “I would say that sucks, at the very least.”

“How’s your head?” Dr. Carter asked.

“…kinda throbs on my left temple,” she said, which was right where a nasty gash and a black eye were. “But that’s it.”

And with that, she pushed herself up so she was sitting, looking around herself at the living room, then at Jonas. “How’re you?”

“…I could be better,” Jonas said softly. “And don’t worry, my past isn’t tragic, either.”

“That’s because you’re a baby,” Billy said with a smile.

“Hey!” Jonas protested.

“Dude, you’re barely over half a year old,” Tommy said, smirking. “ _Baby._ ”

“This baby still has at least two working repulsors,” Jonas said.

“But that means a few more broken ones, right?” Eli said.

Jonas slowly nodded.

Eli looked to Kate, who glanced down at herself and said, “I think I’m good.”

“Which means now we definitely have to get you fixed up,” Eli said to Jonas. “You said there’s somewhere we can go, kinda far?”

“I would estimate about half a day’s drive, including traffic,” Jonas said.

Eli nodded, looking around the rest. “I guess that’s where we’ll go next. Once all of us are taken care of…then we can worry about what to do next.”

That was what Teddy was scared of.

“How much do you want?” Kate asked Dr. Carter.

Dr. Carter frowned in confusion. “How much of what?”

Kate raised an eyebrow, sitting up straight. It was probably killing her to, given she had at least two cracked ribs, but she did it anyway.

“Money,” she said calmly. Dr. Carter looked indignant.

“I don’t want your money!” she snapped. “I’m not taking money from a bunch of traumatized children!”

“But do you _need_ the money, since we probably used up a lot of your stuff?” Kate asked.

“Most of her stuff,” Eli muttered, not really under his breath.

“And,” Kate continued, shooting Eli an amused look. “If you won’t take money from traumatized kids, how about from a grateful and rich party-girl?”

Dr. Carter just looked even more indignant.

“I’m not strapped for cash, yet,” she said.

Kate narrowed her eyes at Dr. Carter, then looked to the others and said, “So we’re leaving, for…?”

Jonas was apparently still distrustful of Dr. Carter, because all he said was, “South.”

“South,” Kate said. “Let’s head out as soon as possible.”

“Get some rest, first,” Dr. Carter insisted, looking at all of them. “None of you are in any shape to be haring off ‘far away’ and going South. Besides, rush hour is going to start, soon.”

“Are you going to be in it?”

“No,” she said. “Normally, I take the night shift. Why do you think I was up watching TV at two in the morning?”

“Well, then,” Billy said, looking up at them all. “I’m guessing this is our plan? Sleep until mid-afternoon, then leave just before the evening rush hour to head…south.”

Teddy watched as Eli and Kate looked at each other, before both nodding at Billy.

“All right, then,” Dr. Carter said. “I’ll see about getting you guys some pillows and blankets and stuff.”

“It’s okay,” Kate said. “I planned for something like there. There are a bunch of sleeping bags in my car.”

“I’ll get them,” Tommy said.

“…I guess I’ll leave you all to it,” Dr. Carter said.

“We’ll clean this up,” Kate promised, gesturing for the food. “Thank you for your hospitality.”

For some reason, Dr. Carter snorted at that.

“Sure,” she said. “I’m taking a shower, then all of you clean up and go to sleep, okay?”

They all gave mostly-non-verbal affirmations, and shaking her head ruefully, Dr. Carter got up and padded up the staircase. They were all tense through the sound of a door opening, and then another door closing, and it wasn’t until they heard the faint sound of the shower that anyone spoke.

“You’re going to leave her some money, anyway, aren’t you?” Eli asked.

Kate nodded. “If nothing else, I’m pretty sure she really does need to stock up after we’re gone.”

“Are we actually going to sleep here?” Rikki asked.

“I’m not sure we have much choice,” Teddy said.

Because while he was still incredibly keyed up after last night, he was tired. He’d been ‘too tired to sleep’ – something he hadn’t understood until HYDRA took him – but now that he’d gotten a chance to eat, wasn’t running, and knew there weren’t going to be any guards to wake him up for one stupid test or another…

He was flagging, and he wasn’t the only one.

“I can wait,” Jonas said. “There’s nothing that can’t wait a few more hours.”

“All right,” Eli said, and with a nod to Shepherd, the boy zipped off, and in under a minute he was back, dropping several duffel bags onto a patch of empty floor between them.

“By the way,” Kate said, looking at Jonas. “Where _are_ we going? Who else can do your repairs besides Iron Man?”

Jonas cocked his head a little, a movement accompanied by a weird clicking sound from deep within his neck.

“Someone…someone Tony does care deeply for, but is not in constant contact with,” Jonas said. “We mostly talk online. I only met him in person once, though, when Tony and I took some technology over to him as a gift. It’s not the entirety of what I need, but his lab is extensive, and he has ample technical knowledge, himself.” He paused. “And I am certain that if we ask him not to call the Avengers, he won’t, which is the real reason I'm going to him.”

“That’s good,” Shepherd said, despite Jonas’ clear apprehension about avoiding the Avengers. “But where is it?”

“Tennessee.”

~*~


	7. Technical Support

~*~

Harley was just wrapping up the latest set of modifications to his dirt bike when he heard a frantic pounding at the door to his lab.

He frowned, looking between the door and the nearest clock. Two in the morning, this time of year – not the first time someone would come running up to him with their computer and a semester project clutched in their arms, desperately needing his late-night repair service. He was severely tempted to just ignore the knocking, but it was getting insistent and he still needed two parts for his bike – and more importantly, the money for them.

With a forlorn sigh, he went to open the door to save the latest woebegone classmate, planning on opening and closing the door as soon as possible to keep all the warm air in. They would probably be wrapped up in clothes to hell and back, but he sure wasn’t.

He frowned when instead of someone he knew or a stranger clutching a laptop, there was a girl in what was definitely not late-autumn weather clothing, torn up and bandages peeking out from underneath them.

“Hi,” she said, her voice _way_ too even to be relaxed. “You’re Harley Keener, right?”

“Yes…” Harley said, drawing the word out. “Why?”

“I’ve got a friend who needs your help,” she said.

“I charge,” he said immediately. “Not too much if it’s a bike, but if you want me to fix your car or your computer-”

“He’s not either of those,” she said.

Harley blinked in surprise. “…’He’ isn’t either of those?”

“Jonas said you knew him?” she asked, looking around her in a way that seemed almost nervous. Or maybe just actually nervous and trying to hide it.

This time, Harley narrowed his eyes. “I only know one guy named Jonas,” he said. “And I don’t know why you would know him, or-”

“He’s hurt,” she said. “Hurt and broken, and we can’t take him back to the Avengers and he says you’re the only one who knows enough about him to help fix him and can be trusted.”

Now, Harley just stared.

“Where is he, then?” Harley asked. He knew it was stupid, stepping out of his garage-lab, but if someone wanted to ambush him or something, they probably could have done that as soon as he opened the door.

She gestured for him to follow, and darted away from the house and towards the road.

There was a very nice looking car, and whatever color it originally was, the black spray-paint job was kind of obvious even in the sunset. There was a tall-ish black guy standing by the car, facing them with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. On the other side of the car were two blonds, a guy and a girl, and there looked to be about four people inside the car, a girl in the front passenger seat and three guys in the back.

…How did all of them even fit in there?

Before Harley could try to figure that out, the black guy took some kind of hidden signal from the girl Harley was following, and opened the back door, giving Harley a clearer view of the guys in the back.

Two looked like brothers – possibly twins, though the hair made it hard to tell. As for the third…

“Jonas!” Harley shouted, running to the car and crouching by the door. On closer look, the other two guys _were_ twins and the girl was Hispanic looking and almost as grumpy-looking as the guy now behind Harley, but he didn’t think beyond that as he looked at Jonas. “What the hell happened to you?”

His arm was ripped open with wiring coming out instead of blood, and with parts of his hoodie burnt and iridescent, welded to his outer frame. His eyes were glowing, there were holes in the bottom of his right shoe that led to repulsor machinery instead of the image of a sock or a foot, and his left leg seemed crunched in, the fabric appearance of his jeans looking like a sculpture at the damage site.

Jonas was semi-sitting in the middle seat, but facing the door. He was leaned back against the light-haired twin, his legs swung into the lap of the darker haired twin. The android cracked a tense smile.

“…long story,” Jonas said. And crap, internal damage too, that was the only explanation for the digital sound of his voice. He almost sounded like a young version of JARVIS.

“Why are you _here_?” Harley demanded. “What – why aren’t you getting fixed by Tony and JARVIS?”

“You know Iron Man?” the girl in the front seat.

“This is Harley,” Jonas said, his head falling back and his neck at a nearly unnatural angle as he looked between the guy he was leaning against, and her. “If I had a cousin, it would probably be him.”

“And Cousin Harley really thinks you need to call Grandpa Tony for this,” Harley said, before freezing on a hole in Jonas’ side. “Is – is that a _bullethole_?!”

“Yeah,” Jonas said. “Look, we cannot go back right now, and we do not know who to trust. Can you fix me?”

“I don’t even know, man,” Harley said. Every Christmas since they met, Tony sent him new stuff for his garage-lab, but _this_ …Jonas was something else, altogether, and even Tony had needed specialized equipment just to build him.

“Can you try, at least?” the girl behind him said. Everyone was staring at Harley, with the exception of the two blonds who periodically peeked in, but otherwise seemed to be standing guard and watching their surroundings.

Harley just realized that apart from Jonas, the light-haired twin, and the girl he followed from the barn, everyone was wearing oversized and uniform sweatshirts and sweatpants.

Yeah, that wasn’t ominous and disturbing at _all_.

“Yeah, but – no promises, okay?” Harley said.

“Most of the damage is superficial,” Jonas said, as he lifted his head back up. “If you can fix up my limbs enough to improve the dexterity, I’ll be able to handle most of the remaining damage myself. If nothing else, you have more tools than we do.”

“Sure,” Harley said, stepping back. “Look, just – you guys need a place to hide?”

“What gave you that idea?” the girl in the front said wryly.

“Just park the car on the other side of the barn,” he said. “Less distance to move him and less visible from the road.”

The girl in the ripped clothes slipped into the driver’s seat, while the other three standing just stepped back and followed Harley to the barn. The car turned on – it even sounded smooth! – and drove around to the other side, and he was going to have so much explaining to do to Grandma. But whatever the hell they’d been through, Harley was going to help them through.

~*~

Kate couldn’t help but wonder if this is what it was like, last time, when Dr. Carter had been fixing her up.

She had to admit, for what was clearly just a garage, Harley’s get-up wasn’t bad. She could definitely see how someone born and raised by Tony Stark could still call this place a lab. But a part of her couldn’t help but remember that this was still a freaking _barn_.

But then, if she would never have looked for an advanced robotics lab inside a barn, maybe no one else, would, either.

On one side of the lab, Jonas was laid out on a table, lots of wires hooked into him as Harley manned two computers and a toolkit, with Peter hovering over them and taking directions from Harley and Jonas both.

On the other side, well, they pulled out the sleeping bags again.

While Jonas, Peter, and Harley worked on fixing Jonas, the rest of them bedded down, and Kate just watched silently as everyone tried to sleep. The floor was kind of hard, but it wasn’t that bad, and these sleeping bags were top-notch. She suspected the others would be horrified if they knew how much she’d spent on these things.

One by one, the others drifted off to sleep, exhausted in spite of themselves after everything that had happened last night.

Had it really only been last night? It felt like so long ago.

A few days ago, she was going to class and sitting in cafes and doing homework.

And now…this.

“Bishop?”

She startled and turned to see Bradley was sitting up, having done the same as her and merely watched the others fall asleep.

“You can call me Kate, you know,” she said.

For the first time – that Kate’s seen, anyway – the guy smiled. “I’m Eli.”

With a tip of her head, she said, “What’s up?”

“Any ideas on what we do after this?” Eli asked.

Kate took a deep breath. “One or two. And even I don’t like them, which means everyone else is guaranteed to hate them.”

Eli sighed, and sat up completely. He was right beside her, and Kate wondered if that had been intentional. The three boys working weren’t paying them any attention, and if the others were only pretending to sleep, then they were doing it well.

Kate was just glad they were all in one place, so she could keep an eye on them.

“What are those ideas, then?” Eli asked.

“…I’m not entirely sure Jonas has the wrong idea with going to the Avengers,” she started, but Eli immediately shook his head.

“No,” he said. “I don’t trust them. Any of them.”

“Not even Captain America?”

“ _Especially_ Captain America,” Eli hissed, and Kate blinked in surprise at the vehemence in his voice.

“…I take it there’s more to the story about your grandpa than what you told everyone at Carter’s place,” she said carefully.

“Not exactly, just-” Eli made a frustrated noised, his knees jerking before straightening out in his sleeping bag again. “He could’ve been a great soldier. But he was black, so instead… _he_ should’ve been Captain America. He should’ve gotten the glory and…he was first, he may not have had the radiation blast or whatever that Rogers apparently did, but he got the serum, y’know? But the army didn’t let the doctor work on him, because by then senators had taken interest, and suddenly he just wasn’t good enough, anymore. And…”

Eli turned away.

“Yeah?” Kate asked softly.

“He just…he could never talk about it, just got discharged with no recognition that he risked his _life_ so someone else could become Captain America. And then he got sick, and everyone was so helpful until they thought he was useless, and then they just – abandoned him, except to tell him not to talk about it, and then…”

Eli looked at her, and Kate wondered if Eli was ever this open with _anyone_. “He was a hero. And he…he deserves so much more than he ever got. He got a lifetime of hiding and suffering in silence, and I can’t let that happen again. But even if the Avengers want ‘the best for us’, that’s what it’ll probably turn out to be.” Eli swallowed, his eyes looking almost glassy. “

Abruptly, Eli turned on the spot to face away from her.

“…It’s okay to miss him,” she said. “And we’ll find a way to get back home.”

“I’m not sure if I can,” Eli said.

Kate frowned. “What do you mean?”

Eli sighed, and turned around to face her again, his eyes red but cheeks dry.

“He was supposed to be a supersoldier,” Eli said. “He was supposed to be this awesome, young supersoldier. And instead all he got was a bit more strength and speed…when he was an old man, and he took brain damage to get them. Just…I’m what he was supposed to become. Just seeing me like this would be smacking him in the face with every broken promise from his entire life. How can I face him after I let HYDRA warp me into everything he never got?”

Kate sighed.

Medical experimentation was, really, nothing like sexual assault, but that didn’t mean there weren’t certain parallels to be had.

“First off,” she said. “What HYDRA did to you? There was nothing you could’ve done to stop it. You didn’t _let_ HYDRA do a damn thing to you.”

Eli clenched his fists. “I could’ve-”

“Don’t,” she said. “Trust me, I’ve been down the ‘should’ve, could’ve, would’ve’ road before, and it won’t get you anywhere. You didn’t deserve any of this. And if you don’t believe me – however bad you may feel about it, do you really think your grandfather would blame you? Would he say that you _let_ HYDRA do this to you?”

“It doesn’t matter, because even if he did, he _can’t_ ,” Eli started. “Brain damage!”

“If he could,” she said. “Would he?”

Eli’s jaw tightened.

“Your grandpa probably misses you,” Kate said. “And all this shit your feeling, all this guilt? Maybe it’s warranted, maybe it’s not…but how about you let him decide? It sounds to me like he’s had enough of other people take his decisions away from him.”

It was a slightly low blow, but it worked. Eli breathed heavily for a minute, but after that – and after he drained half the bottle of water Kate handed to him – he said, “Do you…do you have any other ideas, then?”

“…sort of,” she said. “Something we could do before going to the Avengers. And this one…you’ll either love it or hate it.”

Eli looked at her.

“We go to the media,” Kate said. “Take your story, make it public – you guys are victims, here.”

“We’re ‘victims’ who just demolished an American military compound on U.S. soil,” Eli said. Kate opened her mouth. “I know, I know, we had good reason – but we need proof of that reason if we really want to get anywhere with that plan.”

Kate deflated. “True. Maybe that can be our next plan? Get ahold of some proof of what happened. Maybe, I dunno, find another HYDRA base or something – no way they didn’t network their computers and back-up their data. Or hell, would anyone expect you guys to go back to where you came from? We can get something from there.”

“If there’s anything left,” Eli said bitterly. “And besides, even if we did – what then?”

“It would be a hell of a lot harder for anyone to make us – or, uh, make you guys – disappear,” Kate said.

“But not impossible,” Eli said. “Besides – how could any of us hide after something like that? From HYDRA, and the rest of the world? HYDRA may be the worst about wanting to experiment on us, but let’s be real, they’re not the only ones.”

“I know,” Kate said admitted. “Just…whatever we actually end up doing, it all boils down to making it as difficult as possible for someone to disappear us into the middle of the night, then turning ourselves in to one authority or another – that’s the only way any of us are getting home.”

“How hard would it really be for someone to just take us again? HYDRA is everywhere, probably even in the new SHIELD again. And even forgetting HYDRA – what if SHIELD or the Avengers have to sell us out?” Eli laughed bitterly, a grating sound that made Kate’s heart clench. “I mean, people may be letting them do their thing, but that’s not going to last long, is it? They could be totally sad and not want to do it, but still have to do it, and we would all still be fucked at the end of it.”

“I didn’t say it was a foolproof plan,” Kate said. “Just our best shot – well, just your best shot, at the very least.”

Eli pounded his fist down on the sleeping bag in frustration.

“Maybe some sleep would help,” he said finally. The corner of his lips twisted wryly as he looked at her, scrabbling for humor. “You look terrible, almost as bad as the rest of us.”

Kate and Eli glanced down at themselves – Kate had donned one of the sweatshirts, but was still in her torn-up black pants. Eli was just in the overlarge white sweatshirt and black sweatpants.

“I didn’t know what sizes anyone would be,” she said. “I was just going to use this to tide everyone over until we could get to like a mall or something.”

“Maybe _that_ should be our next step,” Eli muttered.

“Yeah, but we can’t risk our faces getting on the cameras,” Kate said, and Eli sighed in frustration.

“So, what, we order online?” he asked.

“Well, I do have a bunch of cash loaded up on those gift cards,” she said. Then she paused, and looked over to where Harley and Peter were hovering over Jonas’ knee, Jonas himself apparently talking them through something. “Or…”

“Or what?” Eli asked.

“We give Harley our sizes and measurements and stuff,” she said. “We should take another day to sleep.”

“True,” Eli said, then paused. “Wait, what day is it tomorrow?”

“Uh…” Kate rattled her brain. She hadn’t wanted to risk anyone tracking her or anything, so she’d left her phone at home. “Tomorrow’s Monday, I think. I guess he has school? I don’t know, we’ll figure something out.” She paused.

“Parker?” Eli asked.

“He probably has school, too,” she said. “Actually, I’m pretty sure half the reason he’s obsessing over Jonas is because he doesn’t want to think about it.”

Dr. Carter had offered them all their phone just before leaving. Peter had looked ready to cry as he took the phone, only to realize that SHIELD was probably watching his aunt and his girlfriend, now, and thus he couldn’t call them.

“We’ll figure it out in the morning,” Eli said. “Let’s get some shut-eye, first.”

~*~

Harley did, in fact, have school the next day – but while Parker had some kind of existential crisis about missing school, Harley didn’t seem all that bothered by the prospect of needing to ditch school to help them.

“This is way more important,” Harley said easily enough.

It was a bit of morning goofiness as everyone took measurements – because apparently, just ‘sizes’ wasn’t always good enough, and Eli wasn’t sure if that was a rich people thing or a girl thing or both, but he went along with it anyway because why not.

Afterwards, Eli watched as Kate handed Harley two of those pre-paid giftcard things. “Just one should cover fixing your bike and our clothes, but here’s a second one just in case.”

Eli took a deep breath, thinking over what he and Kate had talked about last night.

Harley nodded, tapping into a smartphone and apparently doing _something_ with their measurements. “Okay, cool, anything I need to know about the clothes?”

Potentially, a lot.

“Besides the size changing stuff?” Kate asked, gesturing vaguely towards Cassie and Teddy. Eli didn’t know if she forgot last night or was just shelving it or what, but Eli-

Eli wanted to go home.

“There might be something,” he said.

Everyone turned to him.

“Kate floated the idea of us taking our story to the media or something, and who knows,” he said, as everyone had clearly varying levels of anything from apathy to hatred for the idea. “We don’t have proof, but maybe just, like, releasing a video of all of us using our powers and explaining our story could work.”

“No,” Teddy said, shaking his head furiously. “We’re supposed to be in _hiding_!”

“It was a single idea,” Eli said. “Look, just – it can’t hurt to get us something nice-lookin’, right?”

Kate smiled at Eli, and Eli expected it to be a smug smile, but it looked more proud than anything else.

“I can do that,” Harley said. “Something that fits your guys’ powers, and can look good on camera if needed. Got it.”

Without much further ado, Harley strode out the door to go get some parts to fix his bike so he could go to a mall to get their clothes.

“You can’t be serious about that,” Cassie said as soon as he was gone. “Just exposing ourselves to the world?”

“I’m not saying we _will_ do it,” Eli said. “I’m just saying we should keep our options open in that direction.”

“He has a point,” Kate said. “And I say this as the person most likely to end up in jail if we go the media route.”

Eli turned to stare sharply at her. “What?! You just said-”

“ _You guys_ are victims of an evil Nazi organization,” Kate said. “You go public with your story, and people will take your side even after practically demolishing a military base.”

“We didn’t demolish it,” Cassie said. “We only demolished the hangar and the HYDRA building-”

“And fought the Avengers,” Kate pointed out. “But still, people will take your guys’ sides. Even you, Peter, after all that stuff with the Lizard and saving New York and stuff. You’re a superhuman who faces a serious risk of being utilized for unethical medical experimentation if you ended up in prison. After saving New York from the Lizard and stopping some heavy-duty biological terrorism, you might even be able to swing a deal that gets all the vigilante charges dropped.”

At that, Kate stood back, holding her arms out wide as if showing herself off.

“Me? I’m just a fangirl, one with no superpowers, no risk of kidnapping or experimentation if I end up in prison, and no defense against all of _my_ illegal vigilante charges. We go public, I’ll end up in jail.” Then she looked around. “But honestly? Jail is the worst that can happen to me. You guys have so much more to be afraid of, and if going to jail will protect you guys, I can deal with it.”

They all just stared at her in shock, and she grew increasingly shifty under their gazes.

“ _Why?!_ ” Rikki demanded.

“Why what?” Kate asked.

“Why would you do that for us?” Teddy asked. “You barely even know us.”

Kate looked at each and every one of them individually, in turn – even Jonas, who thus far had stayed silent.

“I don’t have to,” she said finally. She smiled wanly and said, “Though if I do, maybe I can finally join the tragic backstory club?”

No one was impressed by her attempt at a joke.

“If we _do_ go public,” Eli said, holding out a hand to stop the other protests. “If. It’s not all or nothing, if we do this – you stay behind the camera.”

“With me,” Teddy said.

“And me,” Peter said.

“And me,” Jonas added, his voice sounding mostly back to normal. He still sounded like he was a person talking through a speaker instead of just a live person, but it was a hell of a lot closer to the first voice Eli had heard than anything else thus far. “The government doesn’t even think I’m human. As far as they’re considered, ordering my death would be like ordering a car to be demolished, not like killing someone.”

Cassie, Rikki, and the twins looked amongst themselves.

“Everyone at SHIELD was branded as a terrorist after the Battle of the Triskelion,” Cassie said. “I’d like to tell people my dad was anything but.”

“I do it,” Rikki said with a shrug. “My grandpa can go to hell, and my moms are dead. So yeah, I don’t have much to lose with going public.”

“We might,” Billy said. “Our parents…they never signed up for any of this. They just wanted to provide stable homes for two foster kids who had it a little rougher than normal in the system, not…not _this_.”

“Rougher than normal?” Rikki asked.

“We’re Jewish and I’m gay,” Billy said bluntly. “Coming out was the reason our last foster family didn’t adopt us.”

“But we’ll consider it,” Tommy said. “Just…no promises.”

“None of us are making promises about any of this,” Eli said. “I was just saying we should keep our options open, that’s all.”

“…didn’t peg you for someone who cared about fashion,” Cassie said, trying for a smile as she looked at Eli.

Eli was glad for his skin color, that moment. One upside to being black, it was nearly impossible for people to see a light blush.

“I don’t,” Eli said. “But Kate has a point, getting the public on our side could be the key to making sure that whoever we end up with can’t just make us vanish into the night. Someone, somewhere, who can do something about it, will ask questions.”

Teddy continued to stare at the ground, while Peter and Jonas shared nervous looks, but the rest of them slowly nodded.

“All right, then,” Cassie said. “What now?”

“Now we eat,” Kate said, gesturing to the food-duffel, which was mostly chips and microwaveable food at this point. Luckily, Harley actually _had_ a microwave in here. “And read the news on Harley’s computer to see what kind of public opinion we might be working with.”

“I have already been scanning some news feeds,” Jonas contributed. “Do you wish for me to summarize while you eat?”

Kate grinned, and Eli sighed in relief as he reached for the food duffel.

“Go for it, man,” Eli said.

“Very well,” Jonas said, sitting on the floor as Eli opened the bag and started pulling things out. “While there has been some news about HYDRA activity being detected on an America military base, the exact one and the nature of the activity appears to have been glossed over or classified altogether, with mixed reactions for the public. There has been no mention of any of you just yet…”

~*~

Cassie wasn’t sure if Harley’s clothing choices were a stroke of genius or just sheer, brutal tactlessness.

All of them had gotten variations of black athletic pants. Some of them got athletic-wear tops, others got tee-shirts. The real hilarity, though, was in the hoodies Harley got them, which they actually had to sit down on the various empty tables around the room to take a look at.

“You’re joking, right?” Eli asked, holding up the Captain America hoodie. Red and white stripes down the waist, the top half blue and with a big, white star on the chest. “I mean – what?!”

“If you go public,” Harley said. “People are gonna connect you guys to the Avengers, whether you want them to or not. Might as well jump ahead of that curve.”

“There’s jumping ahead of the curve,” Teddy said, holding up the purple hoodie with green accents. “And then there’s getting us Avengers merchandise. I didn’t even know they had Hulk merch this subtle.”

“At least yours _is_ subtle,” Kate said, gesturing down her front. Harley got her a black hoodie with a purple chevron down the front, and a purple athletic shirt underneath.

In all honesty, Cassie really hoped they wouldn’t end up _needing_ the athletic wear.

Cassie fought the urge to snicker, especially when she saw Rikki dubiously examining her own denim jacket with a big, white star on it, and the red-and-white striped tee-shirt to wear underneath it that Harley had gotten her. Even knock-off Avengers “no, this association is totally just a coincidence” merch was pushing it.

Rikki seemed satisfied, though, because she still pulled it on, as did Teddy

She smiled as she pulled on her own red and purple hoodie, before looking over to Billy and Tommy. Tommy had a green and white hoodie, with a plain white exercise shirt underneath it. Billy’s hoodie was dark blue, with some kind of space-themed tee-shirt, and a red scarf to cover the burns around his neck.

“You know,” Eli said, begrudgingly pulling on his hoodie. “When I said nice, I just meant, like, button-down shirts or even just plain tee-shirts or something, no big logos or anything. Not…this.”

Even the _shoes_ matched, and when was the last time a boy had this much fashion sense? Peter had some red-and-blue shoes that he was apparently debating cutting the off the bottoms of. Rikki and Eli got some patriotic-themed sneakers, while Kate’s were black with the Black Widow’s red hourglass thing on the backs of the heels. Cassie’s were red and black, Teddy’s were purple with green shoe-laces, while Billy and Tommy had matching, plain black shoes.

“This is better,” Harley said. Apparently, he really had put a lot of thought into how everyone could end up looking if they had to go public. “When you guys go on camera-”

“ _If_ ,” Eli emphasized.

“If,” Harley said smoothly. “You’ll look like you’re connected to the Avengers.”

“Which will just piss them off even more,” Rikki said.

“I doubt they’re actually going to be pissed off,” Harley said, something which Jonas apparently concurred with. “Upset, maybe, but if they get pissed off at anyone, it’ll be HYDRA.”

“Unless they _are_ HYDRA,” Rikki muttered derisively. Jonas opened his mouth. “They work with SHIELD!”

“And SHIELD isn’t HYDRA,” Jonas said, not interrupting his fiddling with the repulsor in his foot.

“They don’t have to be,” Tommy said darkly. “All it would take is a few moles-”

“Do you really think the Avengers would just let someone take you guys?” Harley asked.

“Sure,” Tommy said, leaning back challengingly. “We disappear, that’s the entire problem for them gone.”

“They’re not like that,” Jonas insisted.

“Then why are you still here?” Tommy demanded. “Why don’t you go back?”

Jonas sat up a little straighter. “First off, I am not leaving any of you behind. Second, the Avengers made me to help them, but won’t let me. They put me on lockdown-”

“ _Lockdown?!_ ” Rikki said.

“Not like that!” Jonas said. “They just grounded me, and they didn’t even do it very well because I could still fly on my own, I just had to report it when I did. And they did that to protect me. The only problem is that they’re just being overprotective-”

“Is that how it’s going to start?” Tommy said, pushing off the table he’d been leaning against to go right up to Jonas. “Locking us up to protect us, for our own good-”

“Now you’re just reaching,” Jonas said.

“No I’m not!” Tommy practically shouted. “Because that’s what happened to me!”

Everyone froze.

“SHIELD came in and said something was wrong with me, that they needed to study me. And they needed to study me where they had special equipment,” Tommy said. “And then suddenly, I was in the Fridge. I only broke someone’s arm, on accident, and was in the same prison as murderers and torturers and-”

“And the Avengers wouldn’t allow that to happen,” Jonas said darkly.

“They already let it happen once,” Billy said quietly.

“I thought they didn’t know…?” Harley said.

“Then why should we go to them?” Tommy demanded. “Because to me, it sounds like either they won’t protect us, or they _can’t_ protect us.”

“Who else are we going to go to?”

Everyone stopped and looked at Cassie. She didn’t think she’d been very loud about it, but apparently her words touched a sore sport, so she continued anyway.

“My dad was SHIELD,” she said. “He probably still is, probably went to Director Coulson to look for me-”

“Wasn’t it SHIELD that got you captured by HYDRA in the first place?” Tommy pointed out.

“They were all mixed up,” Cassie admitted, dropping her hands but still clutching the hoodie. “But they’re separate things right now. And even if there are moles or spies or whatever – they’re our best shot. What else are we going to do? Just stay on the run forever?”

“Why not?” Teddy muttered, and Cassie stared at him, wide-eyed.

“Don’t you want to go home to your family?” she demanded.

Teddy snorted, shaking his head as he looked around to the rest of them. “Look, SHIELD isn’t our best shot – it’s our least awful shot. But HYDRA is _everywhere_ , so it doesn’t matter where we go, in the end.”

“The soldiers at the military compound probably didn’t know about you guys, either,” Kate said, looking between Eli, Rikki, the twins, and Teddy. “I’m betting they just panicked when they saw superhumans that weren’t Avengers-”

“Which is probably what the public will do, anyway,” Teddy said darkly. “I’ve seen what people said about the Hulk. And that Hulk is a nice old doctor guy when he’s human. I’m a teenager, a teenage guy – they’re going to have a very different opinion of _me_ being a Hulk.”

“Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one,” Kate said. “But guess what? We can make that work in our favor.” She held up her hoodie, using it to gesture to everyone else’s. “I know these are stupid-”

“Hey!” Harley protested.

“But think about how they make us look, how we can use that image! The thing about opinions is that they’re pretty easy to manipulate when people don’t quite have them yet. We sell ourselves off as related to the Avengers, then we go to the actual Avengers, and we ensure that they have to help us, and keep an eye on us, because now there’s too much at stake, politically.”

“I am fairly certain we don’t actually have to do that,” Jonas said. “All we really have to do is go to them, they’ll help us no matter what.”

“Yeah, right up until they decide to put us under house arrest for our own good,” Peter muttered, glaring at his own Spider-Man themed hoodie, already wearing the red tee-shirt and black pants over his spandex suit.

Cassie’s own clothes were all about two sizes too big, and incredibly stretchy. She could at least double her size in them without ripping them, maybe even a little more.

“Personally? I do think the Avengers will try to do what’s best for us,” Kate said. “The only problem is that their definition of what’s best for us, and our definitions, won’t match up. But it really will be about us – they’re not going to do something because it’s the best for the world or the best for everyone.”

“I don’t think that’s as reassuring as you mean it to be,” Teddy said, shaking his head. “And that doesn’t get rid of the fact HYDRA is fucking _everywhere_ and probably even still inside the new SHIELD and-”

“How the hell does that matter?” Kate said. “HYDRA is the only group not accountable to anyone else. The trick is to get the public on our side, then make sure whoever we _do_ go to is accountable to public opinion. And you know who is really, really sensitive to public opinion right now? The Avengers!”

“So what?” Teddy demanded, standing up from his spot on the table next to Billy. “Maybe HYDRA will just take us and let the Avengers take the fall for it! Who knows! It wouldn’t matter because he would still be kidnapped and back in HYDRA.”

“We have to go to somebody,” Cassie said, frowning as she took in Teddy’s posture. All of them were a little tense, true, but he looked almost… _scared_ , the way he was standing.

His eyes flashed green.

“Why?” Teddy demanded, the flash of green gone. “Why can’t we just-”

“Because the only way to not go to anyone is to stay on the run forever!” Cassie said. “I want to go home. I want to see my dad, and my mom, and even my stupid step-dad. I want to go back to school, and maybe even get back to my swim-team again. I want-”

“It doesn’t matter what we want if we get yanked out of home by HYDRA,” Teddy said, sounding like he was picking his words carefully. His fists were clenched, and Cassie wondered how much of that was just frustration with the situation, and how much was frustration at needing to keep the Hulk contained.

“Look, there has to be somewhere that’s at least relatively free of HYDRA,” Kate started.

“There isn’t,” Teddy said, sounding like he was speaking through gritted teeth. “Trust me.”

“And how the hell would you know?” Cassie demanded.

“I know because my mom was HYDRA!”

It was like someone had pressed mute on the world, Teddy’s words hanging in the air of the chilly lab as everyone stared at him in shock.

Abruptly, the anger drained out of him, and he slumped against the table. Despite Billy and Tommy sitting atop it, Teddy’s bulk made it shift across the floor. Still, the intense scraping sound of the metal table against concrete was barely a drop in the ocean of silence.

Tommy sort of _shifted_ , one moment sitting on the table and the next, he was several steps away, with no discernable movement in-between. He was standing braced for a fight that Teddy didn’t seem prepared for, while Billy hesitantly reached up, but didn’t actually touch Teddy.

“My mom was HYDRA,” Teddy said, covering his face with his hands. “That’s how all this happened to me. She – she was SHIELD, I always knew that, but then everything went to hell and she turned out to be HYDRA and I…I…if she was HYDRA, then who else is?”

He looked up, and Cassie could see that he was crying. This time, Billy did touch Teddy, wrapping one arm around Teddy’s shoulders, while resting the other hand on the inside of Teddy’s elbow.

“Deep breaths,” Billy said.

“In through your nose, out through your mouth,” Tommy said.

Teddy nodded, struggling to following their directions but trying, as everyone else looked at him, stunned.

Cassie turned, and Eli looked almost pale, as Kate’s eyes squeezed shut in second-hand pain. Rikki and Jonas looked angrier – though Cassie hoped that anger wasn’t for anyone here, right now – while Peter and Harley’s jaws were still scraping the floor.

“Guys,” Eli murmured, also seeing thing. “Close your damn mouths.”

Two jaws clicked shut in unison, and Harley and Peter shared a bewildered look, before glancing at the rest of them.

“Did your mom give you to HYDRA?” Peter asked, apparently trying and spectacularly failing to be delicate about it.

Teddy sniffed and shook his head. “No…she – I knew she was SHIELD. She said she worked with data entry and records or something, I don’t know. When I needed an internship when I started high school, she got me one at a genetic research lab, under a guy, Sam Sterns. I mostly cleaned supplies, did office stuff, sometimes helped Dr. Sterns with analyzing people’s DNA – normal people’s DNA, though. I was working a late night for some extra credit when the Hulk came through, and it turned out some of the biohazard stuff I wasn’t supposed to go near was the Hulk’s blood, cloned blood or something, I don’t know.”

The flat, dead voice Teddy spoke in almost scared Cassie, but she could see why he was using it. His eyes were red, his cheeks were wet, and it sounded like he was talking around a lump in his throat.

It took Billy tightening his hug around Teddy for him to continue.

“I got infected, but my mom – I thought she would take me to SHIELD or something, but she refused, said she knew what SHIELD was like and that they wouldn’t help or, or something. I don’t even know. I was infected, but after being sick for a few weeks, I was fine. I thought I was in the clear and took my mom’s word for it, especially since she got Dr. Sterns to look at it…then he disappeared, and then the Hulk helps fight aliens, and then – everything with HYDRA and SHIELD happened and we went on the run.”

“Why?” Cassie asked. “If HYDRA didn’t know about you…”

“My mom was paranoid. It was when we’d been on the run for a while that she told me the reason why she never let me go to SHIELD is because she knew HYDRA was inside…because she was HYDRA.” Teddy squeezed his eyes shut. “She said it was SHIELD’s fault that she lost my dad, and she wasn’t going to let HYDRA take me away from her, too.”

“So your mom turned on HYDRA?” Rikki asked.

“Yeah, but it didn’t mean much by that point,” Teddy said. “I tried to run away from her twice, but she always found me.”

Then he took a deep breath and opened his eyes.

“Either HYDRA got their hands on Sterns’ records or he told them or something, because they came after us…” Teddy swallowed. “And when they took me, they killed her.”

He looked like he was about to start crying all over again.

“I saw it,” he said hoarsely, and Cassie could feel her own eyes stinging at that.

What we she have done it if turned out Dad had been HYDRA?

Teddy didn’t cry again, not where they could see. But Billy pushed at his shoulder a bit, so Teddy turned and buried his face in Billy’s shoulder, his chest shaking as he cried silently. If Billy felt awkward about it, he didn’t show it at all, instead wrapping his arms around Teddy and holding him tightly, rocking slightly but not saying a word.

Tommy came over and awkwardly patted Teddy’s shoulder, but otherwise just took his seat on Billy’s other side, again, and sat quietly, keeping a close eye on Teddy.

Cassie took a deep breath and walked over, as well, leaning against the table on Teddy’s other side.

“I’m sorry,” she said, a little quietly but probably not so quiet that everyone else – still looking a little shell-shocked – couldn’t hear her. “My dad was SHIELD, and…I was scared, for a while, that he was HYDRA, too. He wasn’t, but I can’t…I’m so sorry, Teddy, I…”

She trailed off, because what did you even _say_ to something like that?

Teddy turned his head, slightly, eyes even redder – but not a hint of green, thank god.

“Both my parents were SHIELD,” he said. “My dad was a pilot. He died in action when I was a little kid, though. My mom joined HYDRA because of that, so I don’t think he was HYDRA.”

“Your dad sounds like a real hero,” Cassie said, resting her own hand on Teddy’s back, slowly and gently rubbing up and down.

“He was, I think,” Teddy said, closing his eyes and just resting for a moment, before pushing away from Billy. “Sorry for crying all over you,” he said to Billy thickly.

Billy smiled, looking relieved, and shook his head, waving away Teddy’s apology. “Just as long as you’re okay.”

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Kate said, and Cassie, Teddy, and the twins turned to face the rest of the room. “But that doesn’t actually change our problem, or even what we know in order to solve the problem.”

“We have to decide on _something_ ,” Eli said, continuing from where Kate left off. “We can’t stay here forever.”

“As much as I like you guys,” Harley chimed in. “I mean, really, I like you guys, I do, but…”

“We get the idea,” Peter said to Harley.

“Look,” Cassie said. “We-”

_Knock-Knock_

It was a testament to how tense everyone still was that they all froze at the sound.

“Probably just someone who needs something fixed,” Harley said quickly, getting up from the couch he’d been sitting on. “I’ll tell them to go.”

“Look,” Cassie said to the room at large. “Reality is that we eventually have to trust _somebody_ , and the Avengers are our best bet.”

“Why _do_ we have to trust somebody?” Tommy snapped.

“Do you really want to be on the run forever?” Cassie demanded. “Because I sure don’t.”

“Uh, guys?” Harley called out. No one paid him any attention.

“Why are you acting like running forever or going to the Avengers are our only options?” Tommy asked.

“Because they are!” Cassie cried out.

“Guys!” Harley shouted, and this time they turned to face him – and froze.

It wasn’t Harley that they were freezing for, but the person standing in front of him, in the doorway to his garage-lab.

He definitely wasn’t just a random customer.

“Hey, kids,” Dr. Bruce Banner said. “Can we talk for a minute?

~*~


	8. The Young Avengers

~*~

Jonas was the first one to break the silence, but rather than the joy at seeing what was apparently an unofficial family member, Jonas said nervously, “How did you find us?”

“JARVIS found someone trying to access some of your blueprints on some cloud of some kind,” Dr. Banner said. “Can I come in?”

Harley’s eyes widened, ignoring Dr. Banner’s request. “But I covered my tracks!” he insisted, looking between Jonas and everyone else.

“And that probably would have worked on just about any other computer system in the world,” Dr. Banner said, smiling congenially. “But JARVIS is an intelligence in his own right, and the Stark computer systems are some of the most advanced in the world. You…don’t quite have the hardware to match that. Now can I please come in?”

Peter turned his head to see what everyone else thought of this. Kate and Eli were sharing a look, before both glanced at Billy, who looked between everyone else on that side of the lab before nodding back at them.

“This is Harley’s lab,” Eli said.

Harley stepped back, gesturing for Dr. Banner to come in. He glanced out the door suspiciously, but then closed the door.

“I’m here alone,” Dr. Banner said, stopping by the preliminary welding table in the middle of the room, putting him right in the center of everyone else there. He reached into his jacket pocket. “The Avengers know I’m here, but they know how antsy you guys must be after the fight at the HYDRA compound, so while they’re nearby, they’ll keep their distance until you guys are ready.”

He pulled out a piece of paper that looked like hotel stationary, and held it up. “This is where we’re staying until tomorrow morning. We would love for you guys to come over, but…”

Billy’s eyes glowed red, and the paper levitated right out of Dr. Banner’s hands. Dr. Banner blinked in surprise, and followed the path of the paper in fascination as it flew over to Kate, landing in her outstretched grip.

She unfolded it, then raised her eyebrow. “Memphis?” she asked. “That’s a long drive.”

“Like I said,” Dr. Banner said, twiddling his fingers in a nervous tic completely at odds with the calm look on his face. “Capture, assault, torture, coercion – we’ve all been there, one way or another. We all know what it’s like to not be sure who to trust, to be scared of everyone because everyone has proven themselves scary to you before.”

Everyone looked at each other dubiously. Kate handed Eli the paper, neither of them taking their eyes off Banner as Eli folded it and put it in his pocket.

Dr. Banner looked between all of them, then sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

“Keener,” Dr. Banner said, looking at Harley. “I understand and respect that this is your lab, but do you think you could give us some time to talk? We’ve all had a rough few days, and we could use some…relative privacy.” He paused. “And don’t you have school?”

Harley looked to Kate and Eli, who again shared a look, then nodded at him.

“Well, school’s already out,” Harley said, glancing at everyone else. “But I’ve still got some homework I can take care of.”

Part of Peter wanted him to stay – what if there was a _reason_ Dr. Banner was getting rid of him? – but the rest of him was…wary, of going into too much detail in front of Harley.

He could see the same conflict on everyone else’s eyes, but Kate and Eli seemed willing to humor Dr. Banner, and the rest seemed willing to go along with that.

“Jonas,” Harley said. “Lock-up for me, if you guys have to go?”

“Of course,” Jonas said, nodding. “Thank you, for repairing me.”

“And helping us out,” Kate added, gesturing towards everyone – or more likely, their clothes. Eli rolled his eyes and Cassie snickered a little, sounding almost manic and trying to be cheerful, but both also nodded. When Harley held up the giftcards, Kate waved him off. “Keep them, as a thank-you gift.”

Harley grinned, and Peter wondered how much money had actually been on those things – or was still left on those things, now.

“See you guys around,” Harley said, hefting up his back-pack from by the couch. He turned to Peter and Jonas and said, “I mean it, drop me a line or something to let me know you’re all right, okay?”

Peter smiled. “No problem, man.”

Harley bid everyone one last good-bye, then stepped out, apparently trusting that they would not do any kind of serious damage or steal anything from his lab.

Peter wondered how close Jonas and Harley had been before all this, then turned his attention to Dr. Banner.

Once the door closed behind Harley, Dr. Banner took a few deep breaths, then looked around at everyone, again.

“I am here to say that we – the Avengers, the team – we’re on your side,” he said, twisting his fingers again. “Half of us aren’t a part of SHIELD at all, and of the ones that are, they have too much experience with human experimentation, child soldiers, and augmentations to stand behind SHIELD if they tried to do to you even a fraction of what you’ve already been through.”

“…if?” Kate asked a little dubiously.

“This new SHIELD does have moral obligations written into its charter,” Banner said. “And when they ignore that, there is still political pressure.” Dr. Banner paused, ringing his hands a little. “I’m not saying they can’t get away with some pretty reprehensible things, but if you let the team help you, you guys won’t be among those reprehensible things.”

“Why?” Rikki demanded.

“Because we’re not sadistic assholes,” Dr. Banner said with a shrug. “You guys have gone through hell, and the Avengers don’t abide by that. So we want to help.”

“Uh-huh,” Rikki said, crossing her arms and quirking her eyebrow.

“Let me guess,” Eli said. “This protection lasts as long as we work for SHIELD?”

“Yes and no,” Banner said. “SHIELD is…they’re going to keep an eye on you no matter what. So you’ll be protected and watched over either way. It’s just that you’ll be even more protected working for them.”

“What does ‘keep an eye on us’ mean?” Peter asked dubiously, shifting against the wall he was leaning against.

“Surveillance, check-ins, that sort of thing,” Dr. Banner said. “They’re actually pretty good about keeping their distance – they followed me for a year after the Harlem incident without me knowing, but they only approached when they needed my help. You keep your head down, live a relatively normal life or at least don’t cause them trouble, then they won’t engage unless absolutely necessary – they have bigger problems to worry about than being control freaks.”

“You sure sound like a SHIELD flunky for someone who doesn’t work for SHIELD,” Tommy said.

“I know,” Bruce said. “But here’s the thing – do you really want to be on the run for the rest of your lives? Most of you have family or friends you want to get back to. _Lives_. And you’re all young, with a lot still open to you in your futures, even if it’s not as much as before. I had nothing and barely anyone and I was getting exhausted after just a few years. And that was only because I was still doing things on the run, working, that sort of thing. You guys are just…running. How long do you think you can keep that up? Really?”

They all stayed silent, but Peter knew his own answer right away.

“What I’m trying to say,” Dr. Banner said. “Is that not everyone who is trying to help you really wants to hurt you in the end.”

“You guys would really help us?” Cassie asked cynically. “You guys _ignored_ us-”

“We didn’t know-” Bruce started.

“I knew!” Jonas said. “I knew something strange was going on and you didn’t listen to me-”

“And we’re sorry about that,” Bruce said. “There are a lot of caveats and corollaries involved with that, but at the core, we are sorry. We made a mistake, and it’s one we want to fix.”

“I’m sorry,” Kate said. “But I have enough understanding of both business and government to say – really? You expect us to believe that you guys would just let us walk away? After everything-”

“I already said I’m not going to lie. Or at least I’ll try not to,” Dr. Banner said. He looked around the small room. “Can I sit down before I explain some more? It’s been a rough few days and I’m not as spry as the Hulk.”

They all turned to Billy, Kate, and Eli, who glanced between each other before all turning back to Banner. Eli nodded, and Billy’s eyes flashed, moving some tables around so that the couch was in full view of everyone.

Peter got up, moved over to the wall behind the couch, then toed off his shoes and started climbing _up_ it.

If Dr. Banner was intimidated by the prospect of sitting with them surrounding him and his back exposed, he didn’t show it. He just took his seat and cleaned his glasses with his shirt before settling his elbows on his knees and leaning forward to talk to them.

“Yes, we – the Avengers – want you guys with us, even if that means under the supervision of SHIELD,” Dr. Banner began.

“So basically out of the frying pan and into the fire?” Tommy said.

“More like out of the fire and into a pot of boiling ice,” Banner said with a wry twist of his lips. “They aren’t a humanitarian service – even if they allegedly pursue marginally humanitarian goals – and they look at any given situation and try to maximize their own benefit. But their preferred methods of doing so are more beneficial to people like us, too.”

“Like us?” Teddy echoed with narrowed eyes.

“When someone was trying to sell me the exact same BS I’m trying to sell you right now, they called me and the rest of my teammates ‘extraordinary people’. And it is a sales pitch – but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.” Dr. Banner looked right at Teddy as he said, “How many people out there in the world know what you’re going through? What it’s like keeping a literal monster locked inside of you and having to make peace with it – with someone else in your head and in your body?”

Teddy looked down at his feet, and Peter had to fight the urge to curl his hands into fists as Dr. Banner looked over them all.

“We want to help,” he said. “We messed up – we messed up so badly, and the only thing any of us can do now is move forward, and me, my teammates, even SHIELD – we are trying to do that, for you and for us…and for your families and friends who miss you.”

Seeing several of the others opening their mouth, Banner held up his hand. “Please, let me finish?”

Everyone seemed even more caustic, but one-by-one, everyone nodded.

“Fine,” Eli said curtly.

Banner leaned forward a bit.

“I’m not saying they’re a ‘good’ option. I’m saying they’re the least of many evils. You guys can’t run forever – even if years or even decades on end feels like forever – and you all know anyone else capturing you will not end well for you. SHIELD will do its best to not hurt you and even to help you, if only with the end-goal in mind if you guys working for them, one day. And with SHIELD, you’ll have us – the Avengers, the team. The one everyone would like to have you guys on, someday.”

 _That_ caused some raised eyebrows.

“You want us on the Avengers?” Kate asked incredulously.

“We’re not going to be around forever,” Banner pointed out. “Even if we somehow, miraculously, don’t get killed in the line of action, there’s still old age waiting for us, eventually.”

“So, let me get this straight. We attack and break out of a top-secret military research base, fight your team, go on the run – and you guys not only don’t want to imprison us, but you want us to _join_ you?” Rikki said, voicing the disbelief everyone was feeling.

“The Black Widow was once an enemy of SHIELD and look where she is now. You guys are not nearly as high on the list of hostile operatives as she once was – or even me. Hawkeye was sent to _kill_ her and he recruited her, instead. Thor was once barely distinguishable, in SHIELD’s eyes, from his brother – the one who led the alien invasion from the Battle of New York. Hawkeye was a criminal and practically a mercenary before SHIELD recruited him. Tony has been antagonizing every government agency in his path for most of his life, and SHIELD was no exception. Hell, the first time the Avengers got together, he hacked into SHIELD’s most secure servers and computer databases – while Captain America went and broke into a bunch of weapons stores he wasn’t even supposed to know existed, because neither of them really trusted SHIELD. And we’re not even the only ones like this – we’re just the most public ones, and even that is mostly by accident.”

“How the hell does SHIELD function like that?” Peter muttered.

“It didn’t,” Cassie pointed out. “It was HYDRA, remember? It all turned out to be HYDRA.”

Banner shrugged. “It’s not perfect. It’s backfired on them, before, even discounting HYDRA. I don’t blame you for being distrustful – I spent months on the run after SHIELD collapsed, and I had been spent years on the run from everyone before that. I’m just here to point out we’re the least of many evils, and that we’re here because you guys are going to get tired of running.”

“We ain’t tired yet,” Tommy said, deadpan. “And we’ve all had a lot of people break their promises on us, if they bothered to make them in the first place – which you’re not.”

“You’ll excuse us if ‘least terrible option’ isn’t a high selling point just yet,” Cassie said.

“‘Yet’,” Banner pointed out. “It will be. Believe me. Take it from someone who’s been here, who’s done all this, and who literally has the tee-shirt for it.”

“There’s a tee-shirt?” Peter asked dubiously.

“I still have some clothes from my time on the run,” Banner said dryly. “Look, the point I’m trying to make is that you can’t stay on the run forever. You guys are teenagers on the run from multiple military-intelligence organizations. You won’t last long, and even if you did, it would mean being fugitives for the rest of your lives. I’ve been there, and I’m telling you it sucks. And going back home is terrifying as hell, but it was the best possible choice in the long run. Your families are worried about you and they miss you, or even if not, then I’m sure you all have friends you would like to see.” He directed a side-long glance at Teddy and Rikki for that, before turning his attention to everyone. “I’m not saying everything will be perfect, or that you can just go back to your old, normal lives. There is no going back, so you have to go forward, and going with me and the team is the best possible way to do that.”

The man pressed his hands against and his knees and stood up, and the contrast between him and the Hulk was dizzying in that moment.

“I’ll go outside,” he said calmly. “And let you guys talk. Just – don’t dismiss it outright. I know why you would, but that doesn’t mean you should.”

With that, he nodded to each of them in turn, tipping his head back at Peter, before turning and shuffling over to the door, stepping out and closing it quietly behind him.

For a moment, everyone was silent.

“Okay,” Rikki said finally. “Did anyone believe him? At all?”

“He’s not wrong about our friends and family,” Cassie said.

“He doesn’t have to be wrong about that to be lying to us about the important parts,” Eli said.

“He’s not,” Jonas said. “I _know_ him, and I’m telling you, he’s right-”

“Then go back with him!” Tommy snapped. “Just go back home to your little superhero family while we-”

“We should go,” Billy said quietly. “Go with him.”

Tommy turned to stare at him in shock. “What the – you’re kidding me, right? Please, tell my you’re kidding-”

“I want to go home!” Billy snapped. “I don’t care what the cost of that is, I just want to go _home_. Just because you don’t care about Mom and Dad doesn’t mean I don’t!”

Tommy actually paled at that, which was impressive given how pale he was be default. “What-Billy, what the fuck are you even – of course I fucking care about them!”

“You sure had a funny way of showing it!” Billy snapped, and that was an interesting story right there. “Ever since they first adopted us, you’ve been treating them like the enemy.”

“That’s because the last set _were_ the enemy,” Tommy started, sounding like he was going to fall over in horror even as he spoke. “They tried to send you to therapy to make you straight!”

“And did Mom and Dad?” Billy snapped. The lamp on the table started to shake, as did the chair, and the tools on the table started to waver around him.

“Guys?” Cassie tried to cut in. Neither Billy nor Tommy heard her.

“That’s not the point!” Tommy said, standing up just a little taller, then ruining it by crossing his arms defensively.

“That is absolutely the point!” Billy said, the pillows on the couch flaring in his anger.

“Boys!” Kate cut in more authoritatively. She also stepped in-between them, forcing them to look at her.

Everything clattered to a halt around them, and Billy froze, stunned, as he realized what he’d been doing.

Tommy seemed unsurprised.

“Look,” Kate said. “We all want to go home. What we need to figure out is the likelihood of that actually happening if we go with Dr. Banner.”

“What if just one person goes?” Cassie said, worrying the edge of a pillow in her hands. Peter could see her hands growing and shrinking slightly, a nervous habit that took him a while to notice. “To verify that we’re really going home.”

“Oh, that’s just fantastic,” Tommy practically growled. “Send someone in alone to be even more defenseless than all of us put together. And which of us do you think _should_ go, huh? Huh?”

“I’ll go.”

It took Peter a moment to realize he’d been the one to say that.

Everyone tilted their heads back to look up at him, and he dropped down to the floor so that he was on their level.

“I’ll go,” he repeated. “I don’t – I have family, but my family isn’t connected to SHIELD or HYDRA. They wouldn’t be able to pretend to send me home and then actually imprison me, at least not as easily as you two.” He nodded towards Jonas and Cassie.

Kate and Eli looked at each other again, and then sidelong at Billy, who was studying Peter.

“You’re taking a huge risk by going,” he said finally. “You know that, right?”

Peter snorted. “Of course I know that. I just – even as a superhero, I never wanted to leave New York.” He turned to Jonas. “Set me up with one of your e-mails, or a phone number, or something to contact you guys with when I get home for sure.”

“This is dangerous,” Rikki said. “Going alone.”

“Does anyone else want to come with me?” he asked, holding his arms out. “Because honestly? I wasn’t even supposed to be here. I was supposed to help break you guys out, then go home, so that Kate had once less person to deal with. I’ve been gone too long as it is-”

“It’s only been a few days,” Tommy said.

“Yeah, except my aunt is probably freaking out about me, and that just if no one actually bothered to tell her that I am Spider-Man.” Peter bit his lip, thinking of her sly comments about him being out late at night, about Gwen’s pestering, about…about so many things. “After all this, I have to tell her I’m Spider-Man,” he realized softly.

“Wait,” Rikki said, staring at Peter in bewilderment. “You meant your aunt doesn’t _know_ that you’re Spider-Man?!”

Peter blushed, slightly. “Um, kinda?”

Eli face-palmed, though Peter didn’t understand why, while Tommy uncrossed his arms to turn to Jonas.

“What about you?” Tommy asked. “Don’t you want to go back?”

“Of course I do,” Jonas said. “But I would much rather stay here to help you guys out, and prove that the Avengers mean well - and prove to the Avengers that I can _do_ well.”

“…all right,” Kate said with a slow nod. She looked around at the others. “Anyone else want to go with him, first time around?”

Out of all of them, Cassie looked like she wanted to go with them, the most – she even stepped forward. But then she looked at everyone around her, and then shook her head.

“I’ll contact you guys as much as I can,” Peter said, slipping on his webshooters just in case. He waked to the door, then stopped and looked at everyone. Kate and Eli were both standing up straight, nodding encouragingly at him. Tommy still looked ready for a fight, but Billy reached out with one hand and brushed his fingertips down Tommy’s arm, the other arm tightening around Teddy, and both of the most distrusting guys in their motley little crew subsided, leaning into Billy’s touched.

Rikki and Cassie also stood up straighter as Peter looked at them.

“Good luck,” Rikki said finally.

“Let’s hope you don’t need it,” Eli added.

Peter smiled. “Thanks,” he said. He couldn’t think of a goodbye, and anyway, this wasn’t supposed to be permanent, so he simply turned on his heel and opened the door, walking out to where Dr. Banner was waiting by the car.

Peter couldn’t wait to get home.

~*~

Bruce had just finished texting the team what he’d talked to the kids about when he heard the door open, and looked up to see Parker striding forward.

“Hey, Dr. Banner,” he said. “Um, you…can you take me home?”

“Just you?” Bruce asked, curious though honestly not that surprised.

“For now,” Peter said nervously. “Just to make sure you really _are_ taking us home.”

It was kind of a stupid move. Bruce could think of multiple ways he could make Peter think he was going home, strongly enough to confirm it with the other kids, and then take them all somewhere else entirely.

They were so young, and still had so much to learn.

Bruce, however, was _not_ an evil prick, so he simply nodded, gesturing towards where his car was waiting, pulling his keys out and pressing the button to unlock the doors. It was a fairly simple, dark-blue sedan, because as much as he liked Tony’s sports cars, the last thing any of them could be accused of was ‘blending in’.

“Hop in, Parker,” he invited.

“Call me Peter,” the boy said immediately.

Despite his obvious nervousness, Peter slipped into the passenger seat easily enough. Bruce spared a moment to look back at Keener’s barn-lab thing, and smiled when he saw several other faces peeking out from the doorway. He waved, the door slammed shut, and Bruce just shook his head ruefully as he got into the driver’s seat.

“So,” Bruce said as he made his way down the twisted driveway onto the long, flat road that led to and from the Keener residence. He glanced in the mirror to see that the kids were peeking out again. No doubt, they would keep watch on him, right up until he was a speck on the road – if they didn’t send one of their own to follow the car entirely. “How’d you pull off hiding the Spider-Man thing from your aunt for so long?”

Peter froze. “You…”

Bruce sighed. “We had to confirm who you were, so we took the pictures we got of you and visited her. Just one agent showing her and asking questions, she wasn’t hurt, promise.”

“…pictures of me?” Peter asked.

“In the Spider-Man suit, at the compound,” Bruce said apologetically. “She didn’t know about it, but she didn’t seem surprised, either.”

Peter giggled almost manically, the wet laugh of someone trying not to cry. “Of course she wasn’t.”

Bruce opened his mouth to ask what Peter meant by that, but before he could say a word, Bruce realized that there was a giant pick-up truck speeding right towards them from the side.

It wasn’t on the road at all, and Bruce had enough time to shout, “Watch out!” before the thing slammed right into them, a grill on the bottom flipping the car over entirely.

He threw his arm out to try and hold Peter in place as the car landed on its head, crushing it enough that Bruce was having trouble breathing. All the windows were broken, shattered glass flying mostly outward as the car flattened, the weight of the passenger frame not meant to hold up the engine and tire weight.

He was getting ready to crawl out and Hulk out when the truck slammed into them again, this time on Bruce’s side, flipping them again. Before Bruce could even think about how to get out of here without Peter getting hurt by the Hulk-out process in the now-compressed car, another truck appeared in Bruce’s line of vision – an empty cargo truck with an open door backing up to him, a ramp dropping to just by the edge of Bruce’s car.

Peter swore, and was apparently trying to use his advanced flexibility to get out of the half-flattened car when the first truck slammed into them again – this time the back of the car, pushing it up the ramp into the cargo truck.

“Oh, no,” Bruce said, realizing what they were doing. He turned in his seat, ready to try and punch his way out the broken windows, but he’d barley managed to even turn in his seat when they were ensconced in the truck.

The last thing Bruce saw out of the back of the truck as it started moving was the streaking white blur of Tommy racing for them, before the door fell and shut them in entirely.

It was dark, save for the emergency lighting of the car itself. Bruce couldn’t help but cough, feeling just a bit bent from the metal frame of the top of the car forcing both of them to crane their heads a bit.

Peter moved, pushing against the top of the car, clearly ready to try and tear their way out of it, when suddenly something from the top of the cargo hold… _dropped_. Bruce couldn’t see what, but it sounded like several hundred pounds of weight in metal landing on the top of the car, further pressing it down, and threatening to stab them with car scrap if they made even the tiniest tear, or even just _moved_ too much.

“Doctor Banner?” Peter asked nervously. Bruce turned to see Peter glancing wildly between the front of the car – which was just a metal wall – and the back, the door that blocked off the rest of the world. He could hear some faint booming sounds, almost gunfire but not quite, but then nothing.

No one else was thrown in with them, and Bruce had only seen the two trucks, and he doubted even HYDRA could get away with transporting a superpowered prisoner in a pick-up truck.

“Shepherd’s probably fine – he may not be able to rescue us, but I’m sure he and the kids can keep themselves from being captured.” Bruce paused, squinting critically at the walls of the truck barely two inches from where the car windows used to be and trying desperately not to panic. “And I’m not going to Hulk out. I’m pretty sure that’s why they put you in here, actually.”

“But – would the Hulk hurt me?” Peter asked. “If _you_ don’t want to hurt me?”

Bruce took a deep breath, and another, because-

“Intentionally? No. But this is a tiny space, already half-collapsed on us. Even if the Hulk were trying to protect you, you’d get hurt badly – and that’s the best-case scenario. If you weren’t superhuman, you would definitely die.”

Peter swallowed down a whimper that Bruce wished he could make himself, and for that moment he just _sounded_ so young…

“God,” Bruce murmured, swallowing. “But you really are a kid, aren’t you?”

This time, Peter huffed in adolescent indignation. Teenagers.

“I’m a kid who’s already had to see two people die right in front of him,” Peter said. “If hurting me is what it takes to get us out of here-”

Bruce took a moment to just study Peter, focusing on him and trying to make it clear to the Other Guy that coming out right now would _hurt this child_ and is a bad, bad, BAD idea, please, for the love of god, just stay in side, just wait a little bit longer until they had a bit more space-

“We’re not that desperate yet, Peter,” Bruce said reassuringly. Or at least he hoped it was reassuringly, because he sure as hell didn’t feel reassured, himself. “Besides, once the Avengers think to look, they’ll know where I am.”

“They will?” Peter asked, sounding hopeful.

“I’ve still got my phone, my watch, and my necklace on me,” Bruce said, trying to shift to show Peter, before realizing he couldn’t. He just wasn’t that flexible at this age. “And the last one’s designed to withstand whatever the Hulk can do to it. All of those have tracking devices in them.”

“That’s…that’s good,” Peter said. “So right now they’re…?”

Bruce contemplated lying, but he got the feeling that the kid would realize it – or even just find out about it later – and given how hard it was to convince the kids they were truthful the first time around…

“It might be a while before they notice that I’m going in the wrong direction,” Bruce said. He tried not to think about that too much. “But even then, if they don’t rescue us right away, it’s only because they’re waiting to see where we get taken. They won’t let anything happen to us – and hell, all it’ll take is one moment where you can be safe while I transform, and I can get us out, myself.”

It was hard to tell in the dim light, but Bruce was pretty sure that was a wan attempt at a smile Peter was making.

“We’ll get out of this,” Bruce said. “I promise.”

~*~

“Aaaaand it’s officially been four hours since Bruce left,” Tony said, flopping back on a couch that probably cost as much as Phil’s last apartment had. “How much longer do you think it’ll be?”

“Probably around another two hours,” Clint said sardonically, perched on the back of the couch between Steve and Tony’s heads. “He does like to be gentle and thorough.”

“According to Betty, he really, _really_ does,” Tony said with a smirk, turning his head to look at everyone else over the back of the couch, his chin almost smacking into Clint’s knees.

Clint grinned and turned to Phil, who promptly shook his head. “No.”

“You don’t even know what I was going to say!” Clint protested immediately.

“I know that I probably don’t want to hear it,” Phil said, crossing his arms and fighting to suppress a small smile. “You have a one-track mind, sometimes.”

“I can totally think of non-innuendo ways to twist that,” Clint said.

Phil raised an eyebrow, ignoring Skye’s quite snickering beside him.

Tony had paid for the best suite in the hotel, giving them the best view available. Even being on the third floor, they got an impressive angle on the sunset, and the golden light turned Clint’s smile from bright to positively shining.

Dear god, why did Phil ever give him up? 

“…I will!” Clint insisted with an easy-going smile.

“No, you won’t,” Natasha said from where she was lounging on the gigantic bed by a snoozing Thor.

“He won’t if you don’t give him the chance,” Sam said, not looking up from his e-reader. It was a testament to the size of the bed that there was still room for him to drape himself across the foot of the bed without risking getting kicked by Thor in his sleep. “Let’s hear what the man has to offer, _then_ make fun of him.”

Just as Clint blew a raspberry at the guy, the phone started ringing. Tony grinned as jumped up to pick it up, crawling over Steve to do so.

For his part, Steve looked amused at Tony clambering over him. “Let’s hope Bruce managed to get through to them.”

“Oh, ye of little faith,” Tony said cheerfully. Picking up the phone, he said, “Hey, Bruce, who do…you…”

Tony Stark was a man of movement, talking with his hands and face as much as his mouth and not one to sit still too long if he could help it.

So when Tony froze and paled as he listened to a female-sounding voice on the phone, the entire room went tense, everyone sitting up to look at him. Tony swallowed as Natasha shook Thor awake.

“Say that again,” Tony said coldly. Even Phil had to fight down the urge to reach for his sidearm as he listened to Tony’s voice.

“…send them up,” Tony said calmly, and hung up.

“What happened?” Steve asked immediately.

“The kids are here, in the lobby,” Tony said, turning slowly to face them. “The concierge was told to pass on the message, ‘Banner and Peter were taken’.” Tony swallowed, as if trying to suppress his fear. “Someone kidnapped Bruce and Spider-Man.”

Phil’s entire body felt like it was being flooded with ice at that.

“How – how can the _Hulk_ be kidnapped?!” Skye demanded, voicing what Phil was thinking.

“I don’t know,” Tony said. “But if the kids are here, after we’ve been trying to track them down…”

They all looked at each other, and Phil glanced down at his tablet, sitting in Skye’s lap. The record and analysis of the kids’ movements were still on the top, waiting for them to close the file down.

He hadn’t expected to close it down like this. For a minute, no one moved or even seemed to know what to do, looking at each other in sheer bewilderment, because who the hell was stupid enough to try and capture the Hulk?

Just as Phil was preparing to start giving out directives, there was a far-too-polite knock on the door. Tony shouted that the door was open, and a very nervous looking concierge opened the door, stepping in to hold it open for whoever was behind him.

Phil simultaneously relaxed and tensed as one by one, the kids warily trooped in. All of them looked ready to fight or flee if things didn’t go well, but with the glaring absence of Spider-Man from their number – as well as the Avengers’ own missing Banner – it was obvious why they were tamping down on their well-honed instincts.

They reminded him eerily of Clint and Natasha during their introductory periods with SHIELD.

He also noticed right away that Kaplan appeared to be supporting his brother. At the sight of a chair by the window that Sam had vacated to go fill out the bed, he poured the shaky-looking Shepherd into the seat before standing with the rest of the group.

“Can you bring some extra chairs up here?” Stark asked concierge. She nodded, and he smiled winningly. “Thank you. And we appreciate your discretion.”

“You’re welcome, Mr. Stark,” she said, looking relieved as she closed the door behind her.

For a moment, there was a lot of awkward looking around.

“Director Coulson,” Bishop greeted them warily. A bit off to her side stood Bradley. Kaplan stood between and behind them, with the rest of the kids behind them – except Jonas, who was striding forward towards Tony.

“God, it’s good to see you again,” Tony said, pulling the boy into a hug.

Phil would admit to being surprised at the fact Jonas _didn’t_ freeze up as he’d usually done when faced with overt human affection. Instead, he already has his own arms up as he wrapped them around Stark’s middle.

“I am relieved to be back,” Jonas said. “I wish it were under better circumstances.”

“About that,” Clint said, sitting up. “How the fuck does someone kidnap the _Hulk_?”

Bradley and Bishop glanced at each other, and Bishop was the one who stepped forward, saying, “HYDRA…we assume it’s HYDRA, anyway – they must have followed him or something. Peter was the only one who’d agreed to go back with him at first. They were driving off when this _big_ truck rammed right into them from the side, and halfway crushed their car.”

“Straight into another truck waiting for them,” Bradley continued. “It was like a small shipping truck, we didn’t even notice it until Dr. Banner’s car was being pushed into it by the truck that hit them. The door closed and the trucks took off.”

“I tried to go after them,” Shepherd said, and gestured towards his legs, which were ripped, burned, and bloodied from the knees down. “They had some shock wires – they used to trip me up with them in the labs. They tried to capture me, but…”

“The rest of us went after him,” Chavez said. “We kept him from being captured, too, but we couldn’t get to Dr. Banner and Pe-…Spider-Man.”

“What was wrong with Bruce and Parker?” Tony said, looking at all the kids. “No way an armored truck could hold the Hulk in-”

“It isn’t the armored truck holding him in,” Altman said quietly. “It’s Peter.”

The kids seemed to grow even tenser at that, but Phil would admit to being slightly confused. “What do you mean?” he asked.

Altman swallowed. “That car was crushed, so it’s already a tiny containment that’s ready to collapse and hurt whoever is inside it. And then it was put into _another_ tiny space. On…on my own, I would be fine transforming in there, but anyone with me would get hurt at best, or killed.”

For a moment, every Avenger, Skye, and Phil studied him, and somehow it was this moment that it hit Phil that this kid wasn’t just another other Gifted, but specifically a Hulk – _another_ Hulk.

Dear god, two Hulks in the world, and one of them in a teenage boy.

It was one thing to know that Bruce was the only one on the world who would understand this boy’s experiences. It was somehow something else entirely to realize this boy was the only other person in the world who could ever truly understand _Bruce’s_ experiences.

“They may have gotten the idea from studying you,” Skye said finally. “How much control do you have over your transformation, though? Bruce has quite a bit.”

Altman shrugged. “I can’t – that video of him turning into a Hulk and punching out one of those space whales in the Chitauri invasion? I can almost control it that well…almost.”

Skye nodded, already turning back to Phil’s tablet and her own laptop and tapping away at various analytical programs.

“It is not the control that is at stake, here,” Thor said. “But the size, I believe. In that kind of environment, even I would be cautious in how I moved, lest I move the wrong scrap or rubble that could hurt a frailer companion.”

The kids shared a look again, one Phil couldn’t decipher.

He knew it was a bad idea to think of them as the next generation of Avengers – they likely would not want anything to do with the Avengers or SHIELD once this was all over. But still, a group of extraordinary and desperate people solidifying their camaraderie in the midst of a catastrophe…there was a trend, and Phil wasn’t one to ignore trends.

“We don’t even know where to start looking for them,” Bishop said, turning to Bradley. “So we came here.”

Bradley pulled out the piece of stationary Bruce had scribbled the hotel’s name, address, and their suite number on before leaving.

“Well,” Skye said, looking between the kids and her tablet. “We know where they’re headed, at least.”

The kids looked…alarmed, at that, actually. “How?” Bishop asked.

“Bruce has multiple tracking devices on him,” Tony said. “Par for course, he nearly always does.”

“So where are they?” Bradley demanded, stepping forward and looking like he was ready to go storm after them, himself.

The determination alone momentarily made his similarity to Steve almost staggering…but the Captain America hoodie certainly wasn’t helping matters, either.

“They’re on the road, heading west on the I-40,” Skye said, before looking up at Phil. “What do you think?”

“Let’s get a Quinjet and start following them,” Phil said. “But be careful. If HYDRA hasn’t taken any measures to block any potential tracking signals on Bruce…”

“They want us to follow them,” Steve finished for them.

“Are they using Bruce and Spider-Man as bait for a trap?” Thor said.

“Probably,” Natasha said immediately, before glancing at the kids. “You two said there were two trucks. Did you see who or what was in them?”

The kids all looked at each other, then shook their heads.

“The windows were tinted,” Bradley said. “For all we know, there were no people at all. We couldn’t figure out what direction they came from, either.”

“We were watching Banner’s car,” Bishop said. “When the trucks…right up until they started speeding up, they just looked like normal trucks, or at least the kind of stuff I would expect to see out in the middle of nowhere.”

“As long as we have a bead on their location, anyway,” Sam started.

“The real problem is in making sure it’s not a trap, because it’s just too damn obvious.”

“Unless the trap isn’t meant for us,” Natasha said, looking at the kids.

Bradley and Bishop frowned, and Phil, hoping he was on the same brainwave as Natasha, said, “They’re hoping we bring you to them. Or that you guys would follow them, yourselves.”

“They are quite cocky, are they not?” Thor asked, looking between the children.

“Cocky or not, they’ve got our friend,” Chavez said. “What the hell are we gonna do to get them back?”

“I’m not sure ‘we’, as in you guys and us, are going to do anything,” Tony started. “Because you guys are kids who don’t know what you’re doing-”

“But we have powers,” Lang pointed out. “And we can help!”

Phil, Steve, Tony, and Natasha shared a despondent look.

“Guys,” Tony said. “I appreciate your worry for your friend – Bruce is practically my best friend, I get it. But HYDRA is clearly planning on something big. They aren’t stupid – if they really think they can let us know where they are and still contain the Hulk, then there’s a reason for that. They are up to something, or have something up their sleeve-”

“Which means you need us and our powers even more!” Kaplan snapped.

“It means we need the best and most competent on the job,” Steve immediately countered.

The kids bristled, and Phil got a strange sense of déjà vu. It was oddly reminiscent of Fury and Hill’s description of how three of the Avengers stole a jet right off the Helicarrier. Steve, Clint, and Natasha had all gotten write-ups for the theft in the file, proverbially stapled right to the back of all the commendations for they got for saving New York from an alien invasion.

He got an uncomfortable feeling that if he didn’t think of something fast, a repeat of that was about to happen.

“When it comes to actually executing this mission,” Phil said. “Whether from two days ago or more recently, some of you are injured-”

The kids glanced between Jonas, Bishop, and Shepherd, all of whom looked humiliated to have been hurt.

“And you have no rescue training,” he continued. “Meaning you would be more of a liability than an asset in the field.”

The kids looked furious, and the adults looked satisfied, and Phil felt almost nauseous as he continued.

“But you do have the most experience and knowledge of HYDRA’s superhuman containment methods, as well as their experimental environments,” Phil continued, and now the Avengers were staring at him in alarm.

“Phil,” Clint said warningly.

“When we come up with a plan of rescue, we can’t take you into the field with us,” Phil said. “But we could use you nearby, both to consult as we go in, and give Parker a friendly face to return to before we get you all home.”

That last line, inexplicably, was what made several of the kids jerk in surprise.

“You’re serious about that?” Shepherd asked finally. “You’re just going to send us home?”

“Yes,” Phil said. “I can’t promise that we won’t need to talk to you in the future, or try to recruit you guys as you grow up, but for now…”

He looked between each and every one of the kids – even Chavez and Altman, who by all accounts no longer had homes to go to.

“Help us find our friends,” he said. “And we’ll help you find some peace.”

The kids drew back from them, and Bradley and Bishop turned away, glancing at the other kids. They lingered on Kaplan, who was focusing on the Avengers and Phil, even giving Skye a critical look, before nodding encouragingly at Bishop and Bradley.

“All right,” Bradley said, stepping forward. “What’s the plan?”

~*~


	9. Children's Crusade

~*~

Watching the map of the little dot signifying Dr. Banner and Peter’s location, Rikki had honestly been expecting yet another remote location of some kind, maybe something hidden in the wild or underneath yet another military compound of some kind. She was pretty sure everyone was, actually, because everyone seemed just as surprised when the dot seemed to slow down and head towards…

“Albuquerque?”

Even Iron Man sounded incredulous.

“What’s in Albuquerque?” Captain America asked, and while most of her was jaded, some small part of her still had trouble getting over the fact she was in a plane with the _Avengers_.

Well, almost all of the Avengers.

“We’ll have to wait and see,” Coulson said. “They’re still moving.” He turned to Rikki and the others. “You guys know anything that might help?”

Kate looked at Eli, and then the others.

Rikki shook her head and looked at Coulson.

“They tried to keep us in the dark as much as possible,” she said. “The only time I ever heard them mention another place directly was when they were panicking about data from Chicago.”

“I never even heard _that_ ,” Billy muttered.

Coulson nodded, as if they’d give him something useful. “I assumed as much, but every little bit helps.”

As soon as he turned away, Rikki clenched her fists, getting the uncomfortable feeling that them being on the plane was just the Avengers’ way of humoring them to keep them from running.

Still, at least they were on here. When it didn’t look like new data was going to be appearing any time soon, the adults continued to huddle together to speculate. Hawkeye, however, came over to them, leaned against the wall, and crossed his arms.

“How’re you guys feeling?” Clint asked finally. Then he pointed at Kate and said, “Except you, injured-and-failing-at-hiding-it.”

Kate scowled at him. “It’s not that bad.”

Rikki stared at her, as did everyone else, shamelessly undermining her point.

It had barely been two nights ago that Rikki had lifted an unconscious Kate out of the car and deposited her in Eli’s arms, before scouting ahead to see when and where it was safe for Eli to carry her without anyone seeing. No matter how inconspicuously everyone else had tried to huddle around them to hide her, there was no way anyone in the vicinity could have missed what was going on.

“Something tells me it was, in fact, that bad,” Hawkeye said easily.

Somehow, that had been the first time it struck Rikki that she and Eli were stronger than the overwhelming vast majority of humanity, now. Knocking people out with one punch to the head, kicking people across the room, breaking bone with glancing blows – none of that had done it.

But the sheer effortlessness of lifting and moving Kate in the confines of the car, seeing Eli carry her around as if she weighed the same as a pizza box – in that moment, it had hit Rikki just how much stronger they’d become.

Hawkeye opened his mouth, presumably to ask them something else, when the Black Widow’s voice froze them all with a simple, “Uh-oh.”

The kids all tensed, craning their necks, as Hawkeye turned around. “‘Uh-oh’? What’s going on?”

“…we found where HYDRA’s taking them,” Captain America said. “And this is probably why they weren’t worried about us knowing their location.”

“They’re under the FBI headquarters in Albuquerque,” Iron Man said. Or was it just Tony Stark, since he wasn’t in the suit? “When we attack, it’s…gonna be painful.”

“But we are still going to rescue them, right?” Kate demanded immediately.

“Of course!” Captain America said, sounding indignant about the idea of leaving their friends behind.

“We will,” Black Widow confirmed. “But we will have to be careful how we do it.”

…careful.

Rikki clenched her fists at that. _Careful_. She didn’t think careful meant ‘careful for Peter’s sake’ here.

The silence seemed to grow tenser as the Avengers landed – judging by what little Rikki could glimpse of the map, they were in a park of some kind not too far from the building itself. The park was apparently abandoned at this time of night, and when Rikki looked out the window, they were in some isolated little group of trees that didn’t stop her from glimpsing city lights in the distance.

The Avengers huddled together even more, and Rikki turned to see her frustration reflected on her own friends’ faces.

Even Jonas’.

Eli looked at the Avengers, whispering furiously amongst themselves, and even through the sound of the jet engine, Rikki could hear them debating how to infiltrate.

If there was one thing Rikki knew, it was that HYDRA could act fast when they wanted to, and infiltration took too long.

It was…ridiculously easy for everyone to start to lean into each other, to make their own little huddle. Only Thor noticed, but he seemed…smug, as he looked back at his own team.

“Are we really just going to wait here when they go rescue Peter and Dr. Banner?” Billy asked, voice so low even Rikki strained to hear him.

Rikki glared at the Avengers, and hopefully they just thought the huddle was ‘the traumatized kids’ being suspicious and nothing more.

“We don’t have much of a choice,” Cassie murmured.

Over by the adults, the Black Widow snapped at Iron Man for suggesting they just barge up to the front door and ‘knock’. Rikki wasn’t sure if that meant actually knocking or something else, but either way, Captain America immediately vetoed the idea, because that was a surefire way to get the two hostages killed and piss off the American public for attacking one of their own bureaus in the process.

“Is it just me,” Tommy said. “Or do they seem as concerned about the publicity as they do about our friends?”

“SHIELD is in an incredibly precarious position, right now,” Jonas said, his voice sounding completely human now that Iron Man had fixed him. “They may not be _able_ to help or protect us if they are too busy trying to defend themselves from everyone else. That was HYDRA’s entire goal by bringing Bruce and Peter under an FBI building, to goad the Avengers into turning public opinion against them.”

“Oh, so taking over a military compound is okay, but not the FBI?” Kate asked.

“They _weren’t_ attacking the military when they came to the Facility,” Rikki pointed out. “They were attacking us.”

That gave everyone pause, several of them glancing over at the Avengers again.

“Please tell me you’re not thinking the same thing I am,” Eli said. “Please-”

“If you’re thinking that a repeat of our stunt from a few days ago may be exactly what everyone needs, then yeah, sorry.” Kate smirked. “We’re thinking the same thing.”

“What?” Jonas asked.

“The Avengers want a way to get into that building without losing public support?” Eli said derisively. “Then how about them being there to try and contain several super-powered teenagers trying to invade the FBI?”

Teddy’s eyebrows shot up until they disappeared into his bangs. “You really think that’ll work?”

“…it might,” Kate admitted.

“No way we can get into the HYDRA base on our own,” Billy said, shaking his head.

“We don’t have to,” Rikki pointed out, turning to face them. “We just need to get in and kick up a fuss – enough that when the Avengers show up, the FBI is grateful to have them there.”

“But that’s still going to involve us attacking the FBI,” Billy said. “What the hell happened to our plans of going public?”

“We can afford to put saving lives ahead of public opinion of us,” Eli said.

“So can they!” Tommy hissed, jerking his head back towards the Avengers without actually turning to look at them.

“No,” Jonas said. “They can’t protect us if they are on the defensive, but if _we_ are, well, that’s little different from our existing situation already.”

“But the Facility was different,” Teddy said. “We were breaking _out_ , then. This would be us breaking _in_.”

“Do you have any other suggestions, then?” Kate demanded.

“We have some.”

They all froze, then sharply spread away from each other to turn around to see where the Falcon stood, arms crossed. Captain America had spoken from right behind him.

“You know we can hear you, right?” Hawkeye asked.

Rikki looked back at the others. She and everyone else glanced at Billy, who nodded with a clenched jaw towards Kate and Eli.

Eli took that as his cue to step forward and say, “Then you know our plan may be your best shot of-”

“No.”

Rikki glared at Iron Man, but he didn’t seem all that concerned.

“We can’t throw you guys into the line of fire like that,” Coulson said, shaking his head. “It’s too dangerous.”

“There’s no one else in here besides us,” Kate said, rolling her eyes. “If someone asks you later, you can claim we, I don’t know, ran away or something.”

“That’s not the kind of dangerous I’m talking about,” Coulson said, standing up straighter.

“That’s the only kind you seemed to care about a second ago,” Tommy said.

“I get the fear and urgency, kids,” Black Widow said. “But we have to think about the short term and long-term problems, here. Don’t mistake that for being willing to let our boys go deeper into HYDRA’s clutches.”

Rikki clenched her fists so tight, she thought her nails might break skin – and she knew she wasn’t the only one. Everyone seemed to getting ready for a fight, whether to convince the Avengers to let them help or to just go _do_ it.

Then, Thor spoke up.

“I say we let them.”

The supportive pronouncement had been much softer than Captain America’s rebuke, but Rikki would still admit to find it more shocking. For a moment, it was a struggle not to gape at Thor as the big guy leaned against the edge of the Quinjet cockpit, and Rikki struggled to reconcile the part where she heard his words in Spanish with the fact that everyone else seemed to understand him perfectly, despite the fact there was no way all of _them_ spoke Spanish.

“You’re joking, right?” the Falcon demanded.

“No,” Thor said. Rikki tried reading his lips when he spoke, and found she couldn’t. She gave up trying to process the weird language disconnect, though, and instead focused on what he was actually saying. “They are right. Slithering into HYDRA’s hold will take too long, and if we are to avoid further confrontation on this matter from the people, then we cannot simply attack – we must have a purpose for engaging in war within this bureau, and the best reason that will guarantee us nearly free reign with the least consequences will be the impression that we are there to contain several uncontrollable and powerful children.”

“We’re not _children_ ,” Cassie muttered under her breath. Thor smiled congenially at her, but didn’t respond.

“You’re talking about throwing these kids into the line of fire!” Iron Man snapped. “For fuck’s sake, Bishops still injured!”

“It’s not that bad,” Kate insisted. Her ribs were still wrapped up and yet she stood up straight, chin up as she faced down the Avengers. Rikki didn’t doubt for a second that it was causing her pain, even accounting for the painkillers Dr. Carter had given her, but for a rich white girl, Kate was tough. Hell, for anyone, she was tough.

“They wouldn’t necessarily need to be in the line of fire for long,” Hawkeye said, and now the adult Avengers were turning to stare at _him_ incredulously.

“Clint…” Coulson warned, dragging the name out and shaking his head. For some reason, Rikki remembered right then that apparently, these two guys were supposed to be _married_ , though Jonas said that it was some kind of cover-slash-work-in-progress rather than an actual marriage.

Watching the way Coulson looked at Hawkeye, Rikki wasn’t so sure it was as much of a sham as they would have liked for it to be.

“We need an in, and fast,” Hawkeye said. “The kids can take care of themselves for just a few minutes, and that’s all we need.”

“You really think no one is going to be suspicious about us showing up only a few minutes after them?” Iron Man said.

“Not if we claim we’d been pursuing them,” Black Widow said slowly. “And that we happened to pursue them to the FBI.”

Iron Man was almost viciously shaking his head. “No, no, no, no, _no_! They’re kids!”

“We’re kids who can help!” Rikki snapped.

“This is what you made me for,” Jonas said, going up to Iron Man. “To help you. Didn’t you realize, when you were helping Father make me that I would end up being at risk?”

Iron Man pursed his lips, glaring at Jonas.

“You’re not ready,” he said finally.

“Were _you_ ready when you became Iron Man?” Jonas said. When Iron Man didn’t answer, he turned to Captain America. “This is the best plan with our current resources, and you know it.”

“Please,” Cassie said. “It’s both our friends’ lives at stake in there.”

Captain America didn’t look happy, not by a long shot. He looked between them all, and inexplicably patted something in one of his pockets as he did, as if searching for something. Rikki thought she heard the sound of paper crinkling before the captain said, “Look, you’re right. We just – risking you should be a last resort.”

“Well, you just said your back-up is still almost half an hour out, and that the FBI won’t play nice, anyway,” Kate started.

“Whatever we decide, we have to decide it fast,” Black Widow said, turning to look at the console with the active screens on it. “Because HYDRA’s been stationary there for almost twenty minutes, and that’s long enough for them to get up to some nasty stuff.”

For a moment, the silence seemed to expand, filling up the jet with pressure as everyone was thinking, no one saying a word.

Then Kate lifted her bow, slinging it over her head and around her shoulders, and turned to Billy.

“I think this would be a great time for you to get so scared for our friends that you lose control of your powers,” she said calmly. “So that the Avengers can open the door to let you outside, in the hopes you’ll calm down with some fresh air and open space, and then get so focused on planning what to do that they don’t notice us slipping away.”

Billy slowly nodded, eyes and hands starting to glow red, or flare up or whatever – it was hard to describe. Captain America shut his eyes as if he was in pain, while Thor…smiled. Huh.

“So we’re really doing this,” Iron Man said flatly.

“It’s only some FBI agents,” Hawkeye said with forced nonchalance, grabbing up his own bow. He looked to the Black Widow, who started fiddling with the controls on the console until the entire back part of the plane was lowering, opening them up to the chilly late-night air.

“Good luck,” the Falcon said, clearly unhappy but making no move to stop them from leaving. Even Captain America stood up, nodding to Rikki and everyone behind her encouragingly as they started to move.

“For what?” Kate asked mock-innocently as everyone else started slipping out the doors, pulling their hoods up and zipping up the hoodies against the chill. “We’re just going out to get some fresh air.”

“Fresh air, huh?” Captain America said, mouth almost forming into a smile but not quite. “Is that what they’re calling it, these days?”

~*~

If he were being honest, Billy still couldn’t believe that he was _flying_. Later – and there would be a later, damnit – he would spend time marveling at the fact that he was literally in the air, with nothing holding him up except his own power, at his own will.

But that would have to come later, because in what felt like no time at all, they had gone from the empty park across at least two distinct neighborhoods, over a dozen blocks, _another_ park, and a business district to get to the FBI headquarters of Albuquerque.

It was so non-assuming, looking at it from the outside. But Billy knew, by now, just how deceiving such appearances could be.

“I have access to some rudimentary schematics of the building,” Jonas said, his eyes out of focus as he did something in his head. “While the ground floor would be the quickest way to get to the basement access doors, it is also where the security is most concentrated.”

“Second floor, then,” Kate said immediately, badly suppressing a hiss of pain as she pulled her bow off her shoulders. Billy made a mental note to keep an eye on her, and judging by the looks on everyone else’s faces, he wasn’t the only one.

“We can’t hold back,” Eli said. “We make this big, we make our superpowers obvious, and we make it so when the Avengers show up, the FBI is begging them to step in and do whatever they want.”

“I guess that’s my cue to make us a door in the second floor,” Teddy said, pulling off his hoodie. He looked down at himself, then took off his shirt, too, and Billy held out a hand to take them from him, trying not to actually look at Teddy’s bare chest.

After what HYDRA had done to them, done to their _bodies_ , it felt wrong to think about how nice Teddy’s physique was.

In Billy’s defense, it really was a nice chest.

“Now or never,” Tommy said.

Teddy nodded. He smiled at Billy, then turned to face the building, face hardening as he did…whatever it was he did to Hulk out.

As weird as the flying been, it still didn’t match up to seeing a cute guy morph into the Hulk – or, uh, _a_ Hulk – right in front of him. Flying just about broken even on the feeling of this Hulk towering over them all.

“Second floor,” Kate said.

“The halfway point between the door and the corner of the building,” Jonas added. “On the left.”

Eli pointed to the spot, and looked at the Hulk eye-to-eye. “ _Go._ ”

With that nerve-wracking, invigorating, and inhuman roar, Teddy – or rather, the Hulk…this Hulk…Hulkling? – ran forward to the building, charging like a tank with legs.

From his vantage point as he slowly lifted himself up into the air, he could see that there were some people in the distance – FBI agents? Random citizens? What were they still doing here at midnight? – screaming and backing away, trying to put as much distance between themselves and Hulkling’s trajectory as possible.

Even then, someone pulled a smartphone out of their pockets. So much for staying secret, then.

“Might wanna try to cover your faces a bit,” Billy said, pulling up his hood tighter and pulling the drawstrings around them. “We’ve got camera phones.”

“Of course we do,” Eli grumbled, pulling up his hood. Everyone else did the same as they braced themselves for the sound of the inevitable crashing. Billy and Kate pulled their scarves up as well, Billy’s red and Kate’s white both standing out in the low light of the night.

Though they were probably still going to look subtle by the time the Avengers showed up.

“Ready or not, here we come,” Rikki said viciously.

“Dance-dance-dance, let’s have some fun,” Billy continued, and for a hilarious moment, everyone stopped to stare at him incredulously. “What?”

Kate grinned, but it was Tommy who said, “I’m not sure fun is the word I’d use for it.”

And then, he wrapped his arms around Kate’s back and neck, and they were off in a blur of white light.

Jonas’ human visage faded away into the robotic appearance Billy hadn’t seen since the Facility, the atrocious green, gold, and purple color combination, before he blasted off, flying in an arc towards Hulkling’s hole.

Billy shot off, not even trying to reduce the amount of flaring red energy he was putting out from his eyes and hands. If they were going to be recorded, might as well not bother wasting energy on subtlety.

He could just see Rikki and Eli running at ridiculous speeds beneath him. He slowed down so that they could leap and jump and climb their way up to the hole on the second floor ahead of him, before going in himself. He shuddered a little as he dropped himself to the floor – apparently, he was going to have to work on his landing.

Inside, they had apparently opened into some kind of open-plan office. Billy could see lots of trembling feet from beneath various desks, which answered where most of the people who had been present went. Other than them, there were three agents in a loose triangle pointing guns right at the Hulkling, sometimes wavering towards the others but always drifting back to Teddy once he moved.

One of the agents, sounding so beyond his depths and trying desperately to hold onto some control, shouted, “Identify yourselves!”

“No can do, sir,” Kate said, nocking an arrow and pulling the string, but pointing at the ground for now.

She said something else, but it was drowned out by Hulkling’s roar. Sensing more chaos than they actually wanted about to rise up, Billy used his power to levitate up again, resting a hand against the Hulkling’s shoulder, ready to use his power to keep the Hullkling in check.

Making sure his voice carried – and possibly using his powers to manipulate the air a little bit to help carry his voice – he said to the Hulkling, “We don’t need to hurt them – they’re not HYDRA.”

That caused the three agents to freeze in confusion. “HYDRA?” the leading one said. “There is no HYDRA here.”

“Well, HYDRA kidnapped our friend and brought him here,” Kate said. “So apparently, there is.”

“We don’t want to hurt you,” Jonas said. “But we will if we have to.”

“…you are trespassing in the extreme on government property,” the leading agent said. “I don’t know what you kids are but you are all under arrest–”

Billy didn’t wait for them to finish, instead ripping their guns out of their hands and across the room. There was a white blur of Tommy rushing at and then zipping around them as Billy pushed them back, back, and away. One of the agents apparently had handcuffs on her, because she was handcuffed to an office chair in no time, while the other two were bound to different furniture by their ties.

“Sorry, guys,” Kate said, as the other people who’d been hiding beneath their desks peeked out. “But we’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

With that, Eli gestured for them all to move forward.

As they were leaving, Billy saw more people with phones out, mostly calling, but some recording – likely hoping to collect evidence.

“If you see any HYDRA people come through,” Billy shouted. “Tell them we’re getting our friend back.”

And with that, he flew after his friends as Jonas led them to an elevator that would apparently take them to some basement level that, in theory, housed a bunch of archives – and in reality probably hosted something else.

“Pull off the panel,” Jonas said, and Billy did. Jonas reached into the wiring and did…something. There was a rumble, and then the elevator doors opened to reveal the open shaft. Looking up, Billy could see the bottom of the elevator anchored above them.

Eli pulled the sleeves of his hoodie down over his hands and leapt, grabbing onto the cable and swinging around it for a moment. He stopped and looked at Hulkling, then jerked his head towards Kate.

“Carry her down,” he said curtly, then promptly loosed his hands, sliding down the cable.

“What?!” Kate demanded, as Rikki also jumped in.

“Your ribs are broken, princess,” Rikki drawled, before also sliding down. As Jonas flew in and hovered down the shaft, Kate grumbled but allowed Hulkling to pick her up in one arm. The behemoth figure peered down the shaft, waiting for something, before also leaping in, sliding down the cable bare-handed.

Tommy ran in, apparently running in some kind of downward spiral along the wall – or maybe just bouncing, who knew. Billy was the last one to go in, and he made the doors close – just in time for bullets to start hitting the doors.

He levitated himself down the whole three floors to where the others were waiting at the bottom of the shaft, and Billy and Jonas worked together to open the elevator doors again. There were stairwells that could lead to even lower levels here in the basement.

First, they had to get through a short hallway with a multitude of doors. Kate, walking again, had her arrow nocked and aimed ahead of them, the only one other than Tommy who was moving ahead of Teddy. Every few doors, someone could come charging out of one, and every time, Billy would pull their weapons away and push them back, while Tommy would find a way to tie them up.

Most likely, no one on this level was HYDRA, and they didn’t deserve to be hurt.

The guy who ran out of what was labeled a supply closet with a big, glowing gun and a skull-and-tentacle patch, however…

Billy had to move Eli with his power to dodge the blast of blue light the guy shot their way.

“Hail HYDRA _this_ , asshole!” Kate shouted as she released her arrow. The guy screamed and dropped the gun when the arrow landed directly in his gut, and the gun stopped glowing.

Rikki kicked the weapon away from the guy, just in time for two more soldiers to come out of that supply closet.

“I think we’ve found the entrance,” Kate said wryly, as Eli and Rikki both rushed the two soldiers, the shots of blue energy flying wide as the soldiers’ heads smashed into the walls.

Hulkling rammed into the supply closet, breaking the entire wall as he tried to get through the door, and on the other side, an entire shelf was moved to the side, revealing a gleaming door in the dusty interior, wide open into a cleaner hallway than the one they just came from.

Archives. Right.

Billy could see soldiers and scientists and other people through that little doorway, that hallway. He could hear what sounded like vehicles, and shouting.

And in all that shouting, he heard someone say, “We have to move the Hulk and Spider-Man! Now!”

They were here, and there were all these HYDRA soldiers between Billy’s team and their friend.

Billy saw red, and it had nothing to do with his powers.

If he hadn’t still been pissed off with the Avengers treating them like the little kids they never would be again, Billy would have called moving through the HYDRA hallways child’s play. He saw red from his power, he saw red in his vision – and he saw red on the walls from their attacks.

He should probably be concerned. There were at least a few soldiers back there who wouldn’t be surviving this. Who wouldn’t survive _Billy_.

But somehow, after months of containment, months of experimentation and watching them hurt Tommy and all the pain they caused him and his brother, all the while crooning about how they were gifts to humanity–

Billy couldn’t care less.

Instead, he wondered how HYDRA could be so stupid. Had they _really_ expected this place to be safe?

Unfortunately, it didn’t take too long to get an answer.

There was a curve in the hallway, then some kind of big, open area, like a giant garage. Billy saw the two trucks from outside Harley’s place – and a big, metal box of some kind that various soldiers were scrambling to move into another truck, this one bigger and looking a little more fortified than the other two.

Between Billy and what was pretty sure was a box with Dr. Banner and Spider-Man in it, there were what looked like dozens upon dozens of HYDRA soldiers, and half a dozen other big SUVs that must have been for carrying all these soldiers here in the first place.

This trucks would probably have blocked any and all tracking signals, and there was no way Billy could allow that box to get onto that truck.

“Hulkling!” Billy shouted, pointing towards the semi-hidden corner.

Hulkling roared – and hilariously, at least one HYDRA soldier was shaking so much at the sound that they dropped their weapon. The roar was still ringing in everyone’s ears when Hulkling leaped over everyone and landed on the ramp the big box was about to go up, crumpling it from the landing force alone.

Billy flew over as well, leaving the rest of the soldiers in his team’s hands. He was about to help the Hulkling rip into the box, but before he could, he felt something hit his shoulder, something that burned and hurt, hurt, _hurt–_

He hadn’t even noticed when he was falling, but he sure noticed when he dropped, landing on the shoulder that was hit. He noticed, and screamed, but he was on the ground now so he moved, only to feel his opposite hip get clipped by something – this time something that felt so cold it burned as he dropped to the floor again, flopping hard against the cold concrete.

This time, when he tried to move, he realized he couldn’t.

Billy could barely breathe, trying desperately to move his body, to move with his powers, something. But when he tried to use his powers, he dimply saw a red glow from what looked and felt like his entire body, and nothing happened, _nothing._

He also realized that there was a horrifyingly familiar pair of boots approaching him.

Now he was desperate, because they just got away, they’d barely had a weekend of freedom, and they couldn’t go back, not now, not ever again–

He could move, but it was only to flinch when he felt the muzzle of something press against his temple.

Out of the corner of his vision, he saw the white streak of Tommy’s movement halt just a few feet away.

“I would not come any closer, if I were you,” Strucker said calmly.

After months of pain and misery at this hands, his calm voice was all it took for everyone to freeze in well-trained fear.

“No…” Tommy said, and Billy shifted his attention to wiggling his toes, or a fringe at the end of his scarf – something tiny, if he could just manage enough movement to get rid of whatever Strucker was holding to his head. His entire body was still glowing a dim, dim red, all that power with nowhere to go.

“Now, now, Shepherd,” Strucker said. “I have no interest in harming your brother. You are both far too valuable for me to _want_ to do that…but if you force my hand–”

“Force nothing!” Eli shouted. “You deluded son of a bitch, what the hell do you think–”

“I think,” Strucker said. “That you should consider how you speak to me as long as I hold this gun to Kaplan’s head – and the trigger to the bomb inside the containment unit for your friends. Shepherd, step back, slowly.”

Tommy did, as around them the fighting stopped, everyone terrified about the possibility that Strucker wasn’t bluffing.

He sometimes bluffed. But not always – sometimes, he was as true as his word, and those were usually the most horrifying times of all.

“T…To…ommy-” Billy tried to say his brother’s name, but found that his throat was stuck, he couldn’t get his mouth to work.

But if he focused, he could see the little tassle on the end of his scarf move in a way that was definitely _not_ natural. Whatever he’d been shot with, it didn’t last long, at least not when it was just a glancing blow.

“Now,” Strucker said. “We appear to be at a bit of an impasse.”

“Is that what you call this?” Tommy demanded. Hulkling growled from somewhere above and behind Billy, but thankfully didn’t try to jump Strucker. Yet.

“Of course,” Strucker said, in that soft and fax-congenial tone of his. “For you have the numbers and power, here…but I do believe I still have the upper hand, in the end.”

Tommy looked nervously away at something – or, more likely, some _one_ – then looked back at Strucker.

“What do you want?” he demanded, resigned, and Billy would have cried if he didn’t know Tommy – didn’t know that Tommy never truly quit, but was more than willing to pretend to if it got them what they needed.

Strucker probably wouldn’t realize that.

“Either you can try to keep fighting, and I kill your brother and your friend in the containment unit,” Strucker said easily. “Or – you can stand back as we go. Perhaps you can try another day – or come with us, peacefully, to keep an eye on him whilst he is in our hospitality.”

“ _Hospitality?!_ ” Tommy said, sounding as strangled and incredulous as Billy felt.

“Yes,” Strucker said. “You have…so many options. The choices are all yours–”

Whatever those choices were, Strucker never got to finish them.

A huge _BOOM_ came from somewhere behind Billy, a blast and the sound of metal and concrete exploding, and Strucker jerked in alarm – which was all the opening Tommy needed.

Billy’s brother was a white blur of fury as he threw himself at Strucker, and for a desperate moment, Billy wished he could move just to turn around and see, see how Tommy was doing, if Strucker managed to shoot him with whatever he’d been threatening Billy with, if–

There was another HYDRA soldier approaching, and Billy had just enough time to wonder if this was going to be the moment he died for real, when what looked like a flying saucer flew over Billy and hit the guy-

No, not a disc. A shield.

Captain America’s shield hit the guy, bouncing and hitting another soldier, before flying back to something behind Billy – it sounded like someone catching the shield.

“You have one chance to surrender!” Captain America shouted to the room.

“I would take that chance if I were you,” Billy heard Iron Man say, punctuated with a repulsor whine and landing clang he normally associated with Jonas.

By the sounds of the fighting after that, no one surrendered.

Billy felt someone manhandling him, and was just about to panic before he heard Tommy shush him, saying, “I got you, don’t worry, it’s just me, I got you.”

As Tommy moved him so he was sitting up and leaning back against his brother, Billy got a horrific feeling of déjà vu. How many times had Tommy done something like this for Billy after yet another homophobic bully at school had taken a swing at Billy? How many times had they done something just like this after another foster family fell through?

Then he was able to move his head around enough to look around, look at their team and the Avengers subduing the HYDRA soldiers, and the déjà vu feeling went away.

He turned his head to see Hulkling tearing at the metal box. He heard the sounds of shouting from inside, before finally, the entire wall peeled away, and Hulkling was ripping the top and door off of the crushed car inside.

“Billy!” Peter cried out, clambering out. “Tommy!”

Billy heard Tommy say something, but didn’t register it, instead watching Dr. Banner. The man stared at Hulkling, stunned, and it occurred to Billy that for all that this guy was the Hulk, the _original_ Hulk – this was probably the first time in his life he was ever getting to personally _see_ an enormous green rage monster.

Hulkling still looked pissed at the universe at large, but when Dr. Banner reached out to touch Hulkling’s bare arm, he let him.

“…huh…” Billy heard Dr. Banner say, before a big explosion – an exploding arrow, though whether it came from Blackhawk or Hawkeye, Billy had no idea – from the side got their attention.

Then, Dr. Banner turned green, and for the second time in less than an hour, Billy got to watch a perfectly nice looking guy turn into an enormous green rage monster, and he had to fight down a gasp because if he thought Hulkling was big–

“Holy shit,” Tommy muttered.

“No kidding,” Peter said, crouching beside them as he yanked off his hoodie and jeans, reaching for his spandex mask.

–Hulkling was barely two-thirds the size of the Hulk.

The two Hulks – and seriously, what a weird thought, _the two Hulks_ – looked at each other, before both roared defeaningly, and jumped into the fray. Literally, they both jumped, launching themselves up – making cracks in the ceiling or breaking it entirely before coming down. When they landed, clear across the garage, Billy could feel the vibrations in the floor.

After that, there really was no other word for the battle but “child’s play”.

~*~

Phil had to give the kids credit – they’d been right about how them attacking the building first would influence the FBI’s reactions to SHIELD and the Avengers showing up. There was a massive crowd of lingering FBI agents and civilians surrounding the building – though thankfully still well away from it – but they all parted for him when they saw the SHIELD logo on May’s uniform.

Even accounting for an apparent superhuman threat and the Avengers going in ahead of him, with Sam still flying around the top parts of the building to look for anyone trapped inside, Phil had been preparing for a bureaucratic slapfight as he approached the highest ranking FBI agent present, and the one he would deal with until the actual FBI director came.

“Director Coulson, right?” she greeted him without preamble.

“Yes,” he said. “Angela Del Toro, I believe?”

“Don’t you mean, ‘you know’?” she asked. She jerked her thumb to the hole in the building, the occasional muffled explosion, and the Quinjet waiting at what had turned out to be an alternate entrance to the HYDRA compound disguised as a secondary loading dock in the building. “This is your mess, I presume?”

“You presume correctly,” Phil said, just as he saw another Quinjet flying over and landing halfway between the other Quinjet, and right here. The crowd moved away, though some people were still on their phones, a few raising their phones to face the jet – and all the chaos in general, really.

Phil wasn’t sure whether to hope they weren’t taking pictures and video, or to hope that they _were_.

“Director Coulson?”

He turned to see a few of the FBI agents milling around nearby, some with phones out.

“What the hell is this we’re hearing about HYDRA?” the agent demanded.

“Woo,” Del Toro said warningly.

“No, no, it’s all right,” Phil said, facing Agent Woo directly. “Where did you hear about HYDRA from?”

Agent Woo paused, then admitted, “The intruders…they mentioned looking for HYDRA, something about a friend being kidnapped? And the Avengers-”

“The Hulk and Spider-Man were kidnapped earlier today,” Phil said. “We tracked them here.”

Everyone in the immediate vicinity paled, and he could just _feel_ frustration with his openness radiating from May.

There were times for secrecy – dear GOD, were there ever, these days – but this wasn’t one of them.

“So that’s what they’re here for?” Del Toro said, flapping her hand towards Thor and Sam, occasionally helping someone down from the top of the building but otherwise circling. Watching.

Waiting.

“They said they were looking for survivors,” Del Toro said. “But we didn’t evacuate the building because the whole thing was going up flames, just an attack on a small part of it. What are they really doing up there, Coulson?”

Phil sighed. He supposed the fact that they were flying so high above the building, instead of immediately around it, was a bit of a giveaway.

“Someone kidnapped two superpowered beings and brought them here,” Phil said finally. “They don’t have good intentions, and they will probably try to escape justice.”

Del Toro pursed her lips, but after glancing one more time at two of the Avengers’ fliers waiting up in the sky, she nodded.

He heard someone shouting, “Director Coulson! Agent May!” and turned in relief to see that Dr. Ross had arrived, carrying her mini-lab brief case. Trip was right on her heels and barely keeping up – sometimes, Betty’s walking speed scared even Phil.

“Where is everyone?” she demanded as she approached.

“Inside,” Del Toro answered, apparently still intent on holding some form of local authority in the midst of all this chaos.

Case in point, they heard what sounded like two distant, muffled Hulk roars.

Two.

“Can you come down with us?” Phil asked a tight-faced Del Toro.

She swallowed and nodded, saying, “Do I want to know what we just heard?”

“Probably not,” Phil said, putting on his blandest smile possible. “My analytical team is going to be a few minutes off – do you have any agents here who can specialize in containing incident scenes and cataloging evidence?”

“In these here parts?” Del Toro drawled, and Phil just turned up the blandness of his smile. “I’ll come, aaaannnd…” She looked around. “Castle! Lee! With us.”

May and Trip went to work corralling the witnesses and gathering data, while Betty came with Phil and the four FBI agents as they headed inside the building. The last thing he saw was Sam flying off to start directing emergency service workers as they arrived.

“There is no way this is staying under wraps,” Del Toro said as she led them to a stairwell going down.

“We don’t want it to be,” Phil said. He thought about their current situation and said, “In fact, we could use just the opposite, right about now.”

Del Toro looked at him curiously over her shoulder, but nodded as she opened another door to a basement level. There, Phil raised an eyebrow at the FBI agents who were bound but unharmed, not slowing down as Lee and Castle hung back to untie all the agents.

His surprise only grew when he saw the knocked-out HYDRA agents, but he would admit to some light shock when he waked through some kind of supply room and a hidden door into a hallway littered with mostly wounded HYDRA operatives.

Mostly. Some were clearly dead, and Phil knew not a single one of the Avengers had come through here.

“This could be a psych problem waiting to happen,” Betty said, eyeing one of the clearly dead bodies.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” Phil said.

After what these kids had been through, they could have drenched this place in blood and Phil wasn’t even sure he could have blamed them.

Despite what the kids went through, though, most of the soldiers left were still alive. Actually, once Phil took a closer look, many weren’t even that badly wounded, beyond a wound to the head.

He hoped it wasn’t just an accident, that something in these kids still didn’t want to kill.

They followed the noise, and Phil ended up needing to shoot one of the HYDRA operatives with an ICER, paralyzing the guy and knocking him out for later interrogation.

But despite the fact they were obviously not HYDRA, just standing in the doorway between the hall and the garage-looking area, no one was paying them any attention. No wonder, given that not only were the Avengers here, but a mirror of the Avengers, too.

“Coulson,” Betty said, tugging on his shirt to get him to follow her towards what Phil quickly realized were the twin boys. Both boys were on the floor, Kaplan slumped in Shepherd’s arms, but they were both conscious and relatively alert. Even as they walked, they saw Shepherd shove his brother upwards, almost throwing him in the air, a white blur that knocked the wind out of an approaching HYDRA agent, then Shepherd catching his brother again before Kaplan could hit the ground. Phil was just aiming at the HYDRA agent when Kaplan’s eyes and hands glowed bright red – the rest of his body seemed to simmer with it, too – and the HYDRA operative clutched his head and abruptly fell into an unconscious heap.

No one else approached the boys, either, as everyone was still too caught up in the Hulks – and Betty was alternating between heading for the boys and staring at Bruce and Altman – and what seemed like perfect pairings of Avengers.

Natasha and Spider-Man were using the handful of vehicles still parked haphazardly in the area to their advantage, getting the drop on the various HYDRA agents who were trying to use the same vehicles for cover. On one side of the garage, Bradley and Chavez were corralling HYDRA towards the opposite side, where they were getting wounded or knocked out by Steve and his shield. He couldn’t see either Clint or Bishop, but given the arrows flying around to and from multiple directions, he didn’t doubt they were both manipulating the fight to their teammates’ advantage.

Jonas and Tony, unable to fly properly when the ceiling only went up by about three stories, were zipping between the clusters of fighting and blasting unsuspecting HYDRA henchmen away from their friends, before focusing on aiming at the HYDRA agents that Hulk, Altman, and Lang were kicking around. Altman and Lang each stood at over a dozen feet fall and Hulk had almost another yard on them both. Between the three of them it looked almost like a demented soccer game. If the feral grins on the Hulks’ faces and Tony’s whooping was anything to go by, it wasn’t just Phil who thought that.

Really, the only two missing were Thor and the Falcon, who were still flying outside waiting to make sure no one escaped.

And then, of course, his gaze landed on the twins again. Well, at least one could fly, and there was a good chance their powers were connected to Asgardian technology and DNA.

Phil supposed that was close enough.

“This is so weird,” Betty said, following Phil’s gaze across the battle before kneeling beside the two boys. “Are you all right? What happened to him?”

Shepherd swallowed. “He got shot in the shoulder, and then Strucker hit him in the hip with one of those blue blaster things, and he, he couldn’t move, and he couldn’t use his power–”

“S’coming back,” Kaplan said, squirming and trying to sit up. He slumped, looking almost drunk as he did, but that didn’t stop him from trying to sit up straight and under his own power. Shepherd rolled his eyes, but that did little to hide the boy’s worry.

“HYDRA’s knock-off ICERS,” Betty grumbled. “You only got hit with a fraction of it, but I guess Strucker thought you took the full hit.”

“Where is Strucker?” Phil asked.

Shepherd narrowed his eyes, scanning, before he abruptly shoved Billy at Betty and ran for one of the SUVs – one which was moving.

Phil grabbed his regular gun and immediately shot the tires of the SUV, which thankfully hadn’t gotten much speed, yet. Agent Woo and Phil ran after the car, just as Shepherd reached the vehicle. For a moment, he became a white blur of movement and suddenly, the driver’s side window was shattered, the door was open, and Strucker was on the ground.

“Good work, Shepherd,” Phil said, because he tried to use positive reinforcement when possible. Unfortunately, Shepherd didn’t hear him.

He was on top of Strucker, punching and kicking every surface he could find. Phil slowed his run – and dear god, he was out of shape – as he approached. Shepherd was wordlessly shouting in fury. Strucker, unable to match the boy’s speed, somehow found an opening and managed to land a solid kick to Shepherd’s stomach. It looked – and sounded – like it hurt, but Shepherd wasn’t deterred in his vengeance.

“How do we stop him?” Woo asked.

“I don’t think we should,” Phil said, before raising his voice and shouting anyway, “Shepherd! _Tommy!_ Your brother needs you, now!”

That caused the white blur of fury to freeze, the boy crouched over Strucker’s mostly-limp form, one hand fisted in the guy’s collar and the other one raised for another punch. Shepherd appeared conflicted, looking between Billy in the distance and a half-beaten-to-death Strucker right in front of him.

“We need this guy,” Phil said, now that Shepherd was at least _slightly_ calmer. “In case there’s anyone else out there like you two, we need to know so we can rescue them.”

Shepherd looked ready to cry, and it was then that Phil realized the boy had been trying to kill Strucker with his bare hands.

“He doesn’t deserve to live,” Shepherd said hoarsely.

Even untrained as he was, the boy’s superpowers meant even Phil and Woo combined would be no match for him if he got violent. So instead, he approached slowly, lowering his body and his voice, speaking in an even and calming cadence.

“He doesn’t,” Phil agreed. “But that doesn’t mean any other potential victims deserve to die just to make sure Strucker gets what he deserves. There may be other kids like you and Billy out there, or even like the rest of your friends. Don’t let killing this guy get in the way of rescuing them.”

Strucker groaned from beneath Shepherd, and for a moment, Phil feared that would drive the boy into a rage, again. 

Instead, Shepherd lifted up Strucker to kick the old man in the groin and drop him at Phil’s feet before running back to his brother’s side.

From behind Phil, Woo breathed a sigh of relief.

“Wolfgang von Strucker,” Phil ‘greeted’ the guy, keeping a careful eye on him as Woo slowly approached, weapon drawn and ready. “We’ve been waiting for you for quite some time.”

Phil wasn’t sure what he expected when Strucker lifted his head up enough to face him, but a manic grin wasn’t it.

Woo looked at Phil, bewildered, and Phil frowned, reaching for the old man–

Just in time to see Strucker press the button on some kind of kill switch.

_BOOM_

Phil fell to his knees with the breath punched out of his lungs. For moment it felt like getting stabbed by Loki all over again. The explosion displaced the air, giving Phil no air to breathe and no molecules for sound to travel through, and he was in the same void he felt calling to him every time the alien writing boiled under his blood, demanding a way out.

It was only a moment, because the air came back, the _world_ came back, and the world was very, very loud.

Woo had managed to keep a grip on Strucker, and Phil pushed himself up carefully, and turned to see what happened.

The big box that the remains of Bruce’s car were in was in pieces across, but instead of being in pieces across the entire garage, impaling everyone in the vicinity, it was in pieces between two gigantic green bodies and a collapsed wall.

HYDRA’s alternative entrance the Avengers had used – the loading dock that led to a hidden driveway – was collapsed, but that was the only thing that had been destroyed. There was rubble all over that half of the garage, and there were cracks throughout the ceiling, which meant without a doubt they had to start getting out of here…

…which would take a while, because of a bunch of crushed trucks piled up in front of the other entrance. There was a gap, but given the amount of prisoners in here, it wouldn’t be enough – especially since it looked like only about one large person – maybe two very slim people – could fit through it at a time.

The two Hulks – having used their bodies to absorb the bulk of the explosion – were both stumbling woozily, collapsing not too far from where the last of the conscious HYDRA agents were desperately surrendering.

First, Altman slumped against the wall, and Lang went over to his side, shrinking as she walked until she was standing beside Altman, rubbing his arm and saying something quietly to the shrinking boy.

Hulk, used to after-Avengers action and seeing that there was no more smashing to be done, simply lay down and shut his eyes, doing…whatever it was he did (maybe meditating?) to shrink back inside and let Bruce out, because usually by this point they needed the doctor’s expertise on one thing or another.

Bradley and Bishop were leaning against each other as they limped over to where Betty was still treating Billy, while Chavez and Jonas helped Steve and Iron Man by the gap in-between crushed vehicles blocking the internal entrance. An FBI agent came through, and then two of Phil’s own people, recent re-recruits from Old SHIELD absorbed into the new one.

Phil turned to see Bruce standing up shakily, held up by Clint and Natasha and brushing himself off. Altman remained sitting, still looking sore, but he and the rest of the kids were glancing between his own and Lang’s incredibly stretched out clothes hanging off of them, and Bruce’s reasonably well-fitting brown pants – the hyperelastic fabric was perfectly in shape now, just as it was before Bruce Hulked out.

“Man, we need to get in on that,” Altman said, not bothering to lower his voice.

Lang nodded in agreement, while Bishop started giggling, as did one of the twins by Betty. Chavez smirked, Bradley started chuckling, and suddenly, all the kids were laughing – full, belly-powered, rib-bending laughing. Even Bishop, bracing half her ribcage against Bradley, was cracking up, and Phil couldn’t help but smile fondly at them – a smile reflected on the Avengers’ faces.

Glad to be alive, together, and in one piece, the kids laughed and laughed and _laughed_ in breathtaking relief, and letting them be, Phil pulled out the radio from his pocket.

“We have the area secured,” Phil said.

“About time,” May said.

“Do you know how many agencies are up here demanding answers?” Skye asked.

“Do I want to know?” Phil countered. “Send Thor down with the rescue workers, the only exit remaining is partially blocked by a pile of crushed trucks – yes, you heard right, a _pile_ of trucks – and we may need his help in getting out.

“A _pile_ of trucks,” Sam said. “How the hell did you get a _pile_ of trucks? _Underground?!_ ”

Phil opened his mouth to make a crack about two Hulk-boys and their toys when he heard laughing sound, not from the kids and not from the Avengers, or the SHIELD or FBI agents, either.

It was from Strucker.

The old man was chuckling to himself as Woo hefted him up. The kids’ laughter almost instantly died off, and the sudden silence just made the man’s apparently loss of sanity even more disconcerting.

“Cut off one head,” the man said to the floor. “And two more will grow in its place.”

He slowly, painstakingly looked up at the kids. “You think your journey is over?” he asked.

“Can it, Strucker,” Phil said.

“You will never hide,” Strucker said, smiling with blood in his teeth. “HYDRA has given you new life, new purpose–”

“Shut the hell up!” Bradley shouted at him.

“HYDRA runs through your veins,” Strucker said, and it took Phil a moment to realize that wasn’t addressed to all the kids – Strucker was looking specifically at Altman.

“Screw you,” Altman choked out, pale and shaking.

“Your mother was one of our best,” Strucker said, and Altman sobbed once, dry and heaving.

“Shut up!” Iron Man shouted, stomping over. “You shut your damn Nazi mouth right now you–”

“I truly regretting having her killed,” Strucker said. “We had such high hopes for you both–”

And that was as far as he got before Natasha stabbed one of Clint’s sedative arrows into his thigh.

If Phil’s life had any sort of mercy on his old and possibly alien soul, that would be the end of it. Strucker was silent, his words fading from the air, and everyone going back to being relieved and happy.

But Altman was still heaving at the sharp and brutal reminder of what his mother had been – her role in him being here today.

“Teddy?” Lang asked.

Altman didn’t hear her, staring at Strucker, and Phil stepped between them, trying to break Altman’s sightless gaze.

“It’s okay,” Phil said reassuringly. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”

“He…he… _she_ …”

Whatever Altman was trying to say, Phil didn’t have time to parse it, because as he watched, he realized Altman’s eyes had turned from brown to green.

“Teddy!” Kate said, Bradley and Chavez nervously eyeing the cracks in the ceiling like they were ready to try and hold up a collapsed building by themselves.

And that’s what it would be – the entire FBI headquarters rested right on top of this base, which meant the whole place would come crashing down on them if the ceiling occurred any more damage…like from a rampaging, emotionally compromised Hulk.

“Teddy,” Chavez said.

“Go away!” Altman screamed, clutching his head. “G-g-get away from!”

The kids, more out of shock than anything else, backed away, and Phil strode forward as Bruce stood rooted on the spot, staring one of his worst nightmares right in the face.

“Mr. Altman,” Phil said. “You need to calm down-”

“I CAN’T!” Altman screamed.

And of course he couldn’t.

Bruce struggled for years to figure out how to control the Hulk, and even then he was always cautious about his environment, his surroundings, his mental state…

Altman was fresh out of the lab that created him, sore or even wounded from the fight, and just had the worst memory of his life shoved in his face by the man who’d spent months relentlessly abusing him and his friends.

“Get out of here,” Phil said immediately to the FBI and SHIELD agents still trying to crawl in. “Go!”

The agents stared, but upon seeing Altman’s state, even without knowing he’d been the other Hulk, they realized something bad was going down and complied. Woo dropped Strucker but stayed, as did the Avengers, everyone ready to try and contain a rampaging Hulk if worst came to worst – and it looked like that worst was coming.

“Evacuate immediately!” Phil said into his radio. “Get the bystanders and emergency services away, and don’t let anyone else in. Hulk-incident in progress, get away _now_!”

“Banner?” Sam’s voice asked over the connection.

“Altman,” he answered, because this was his life now, he had to _clarify_ who a Hulk-incident was about. “Don’t send Thor down here, have him wait up there, we may need someone to pursue and contain Altman’s Hulk.”

Sam swore as he clicked off, and Phil prayed that Sam, Trip, and May could get everyone to safety in time.

Before Phil could start doing the same down here, though, he heard from behind him, “Out of my way!”

He jerked to see Betty Ross striding forward through the crowd that parted before her furious determination – and dragging the still sluggish Kaplan behind her.

“Betty,” Bruce said, shaking his head as he stared at Kaplan. “You can’t–”

“The hell I can’t,” she snapped at him. She turned to Kaplan. “You remember what I said?”

The kid nodded, and without another word, Betty practically shoved the boy at the impending teenage Hulk in the corner.

Even Phil was shocked, and Bruce nearly jumped forward to try and pull the kid back, but Betty ran in front of him, stopping him with a grip on his arm. “I know what I’m doing, Bruce–”

“You’re going to get the kid killed-”

“I’m trying to keep us all from getting killed!”

“Stand down, Banner,” Phil said. Because maybe, just maybe, Kaplan could do for Altman what Betty did for the Hulk.

Maybe this would be the last battle for tonight.

He watched as Kaplan crouched in front of the whimpering Altman. Phil didn’t hear what he murmured, but he did hear Altman practically scream, “Go away!”

Kaplan just continued to murmur quietly, mindless of the fact Altman’s groaning was sounding more and more like badly-suppressed roars.

Behind him, Phil heard the Avengers muttering amongst themselves – which, when he actually looked at them, turned out to be them muttering to the rest of the kids.

“Oh, no,” Bruce said, looking at them all. “No, no, _no_ , you’re not throwing these kids into that kind of danger zone–”

But they did. Phil stepped back as Chavez and Jonas strode forth, crouching down beside Kaplan, saying a few words each and then just staying there, silently supporting Kaplan as he continued to talk quietly to Altman. Then Jonas started humming, and Phil had no idea what it was beyond an inkling of having probably heard it over the radio recently, but Jonas kept humming, though never singing or just playing the music.

Then Cassie went forth, growing as she did and sitting in front of the kid, her increasing bulk starting to block the corner and the other kids with it, giving them something resembling an illusion of privacy. Tommy was instantly at her side, leaning against the wall and chattering away about how Teddy could do it, he could calm down, why are you freaking out when the battle was over and they could go home again and didn’t he already tell Teddy not to make Billy sad and hey, maybe now they could finally measure his dick if he hulked out and did his other guy like ice cream or video games or–

Bradley rolled his eyes as he also crouched down by Teddy, rubbing the almost-Hulk’s shoulder but not saying a word.

Finally, Bishop went to Cassie’s other side, arrow nocked and ready as she, instead of facing inward, turned around, called out encouragement over her shoulder, and then stood tall and ready, protecting them all and facing the world.

He doubted any of them expected a threat, but Phil knew the sensation of feeling like your own body, mind, and soul was turning against you. Every little bit of defense, illusory or otherwise, was a rock in the storm of helplessness as you realized there was no defending against the true threat because you _were_ the threat.

It was insane. It was stupid and insane and the only reason why Phil didn’t immediately demand the kids move was because this was something he had seen before.

Even as he watched, the pained roars from the corner started to quiet down, turning into to human shouting, and then whimpering combined with the sounds of Billy murmuring, Jonas humming, and Tommy chattering away without even seeming to breathe.

“Stand down,” Phil said into the radio. “Hulk incident averted.”

Even around them, the din went down as evac orders ceased, and agents started to realize the danger had passed. The remaining FBI and SHIELD agents didn’t try to go back out, instead contacting their colleagues to come back now that they were in the (relative) clear again.

_The danger had passed._

“Is that…”

Phil turned to see Bruce staring dumbfounded at the kids in the corner.

“Is that what…we look like?” Bruce asked quietly, addressing no one in particular and all of them at once. “When I’m – like in Chicago. Is that what we looked like?”

“Pretty much,” Phil said, turning and taking in a mental inventory of the place, counting the HYDRA prisoners, and making sure Woo had a firm grip on Strucker

“All agents: evacuation orders rescinded,” he heard May’s voice say over the radio. “Hulk incident averted. Continue post-op rescue and recovery.”

Phil, Woo, and the rest of the Avengers turned away, leaving Bruce to watch over the younger team.

Because that’s exactly what those kids were, now. A team.

~*~


	10. Young Avengers Presents

~*~

The flight back home had been blissfully uneventful – or at least Kate assumed so, given she’d slept through the whole damn thing.

Kate and her team – and yeah, no, she wasn’t even going to try and pretend they weren’t a team, now – had gotten patched up and packed into a Quinjet with Coulson and the Avengers…minus Jonas and Iron Man, who were flying back to Stark Tower on their own. Strapped upright into her seat, Kate had gotten a confirmation that her car was waiting for her at Stark Tower, and fallen asleep staring at the New Mexico night sky.

When the Black Widow gently shook her awake, it was to see the sunrise against the familiar skyline of Manhattan as they approached Stark Tower.

“Rise and shine,” Romanoff said gently. “Almost home.”

“You say that like it’s a good thing,” Kate grumbled as she scrubbed at her face with a bandaged hand. Something flashed across Romanoff’s expression, but it was gone before Kate could decipher it.

“Your father is waiting for you there.” Kate turned to see Banner shrugging apologetically about that as he stood up from his own seat just behind the cockpit. “We had to call him, legally.”

“We had to call all your families,” Romanoff said, and Kate turned again to see the Avengers were waking up everybody. Eli and Tommy both lashed out as they were shaken awake – neither Thor nor Rogers seemed surprised by that, just sad – while Teddy was asking the plane at large about what was going to happen to him, since he didn’t really have a family anymore.

“All of them?” Kate asked, looking at Rikki as she scowled at Coulson.

“Yeah,” Romanoff said, following Kate’s gaze. “We – the Avengers and Coulson – have been talking while you guys were asleep. We don’t know for sure what’s going to happen, and we know that things could get messy between you guys and your families.”

“But we’re not going to let anyone imprison any of you,” Bruce said. “And if things go south with your families, you won’t end up the streets, either, we promise.”

“Stark wants ya’ll to know he has a big tower with lots of spare rooms in it,” Barton called out from where he was piloting the plane.

“You should see the media system,” Wilson said, standing up in front of Cassie, both of them smiling softly. “It’s amazing.”

Teddy’s own smile was watery and small, but it was there, and Kate couldn’t help but add, “I’ve got a pretty big place, too, and my dad probably won’t even notice if I put my friends up at the mansion.”

At that, Coulson sighed, while Romanoff and Banner exchanged a dark look. Kate looked between all three of them and gripped the shoulder straps keeping her upright. “What?”

“Some…footage of you guys has been leaked,” Banner said, wringing his hands nervously again.

“What does that mean?” Eli demanded from just beside Kate.

“Some of the people who caught cellphone video of you guys at the FBI put them online, and that went viral pretty quickly,” Wilson said.

“Then some footage of you guys fighting us at the military compound over the Facility got leaked, too,” Romanoff continued.

Kate’s eyes widened as everyone else cried out in shock and confusion, and she heard Cassie say, “I thought that stuff would’ve been classified!”

“It was,” Rogers said darkly. “But the officer in charge of that compound…well, apparently he felt there was no compromise to national security in releasing that footage, and that the American people deserved to know.”

Kate swallowed, looking at her friends. Both nights, they’d been acting in desperation and flying by the seats of their pants on one rescue mission or another, and she knew that the ‘rescue’ part probably wouldn’t have made it into the videos.

“There aren’t any shots of your guys’ faces,” Romanoff said reassuringly. “So none of you have been identified. But the fact that there is now a group of people with superpowers fighting together? That’s out there, and there is no taking it back.”

“And given both your capabilities and your outfits, more than a few people are drawing parallels between you and the Avengers,” Coulson continued.

Kate laughed, gripping her shoulder straps and trying not to throw up.

“Guess we got in front of the camera after all,” Tommy said darkly.

“Oh my god, Harley is going to be insufferable about the outfits,” Billy added, and Kate couldn’t help but smile at the unspoken assumption that they would all see the guy again.

“…I did say looking right would work in our favor if we ended up going public,” Eli said, already sounding like he regretted his words even as he tried to argue in favor of them.

“Rogers, Stark and I will be holding a press conference explaining everything without disclosing your identities, as soon as we land,” Coulson said. “Given that you guys are kids, and all of you have either spent the last few months fighting crime on the streets or being experimented on in a HYDRA facility, there probably won’t be much public backlash against us keeping your identities private.

“Some people will have to know,” Romanoff added. “The President, certain security heads, that sort of thing – but they’ve already agreed to protect you guys, and publicly support our decision to hide your identities.”

No one really sighed in relief at that, but the tension did seem to drain out of the room as everyone realized they were safe.

For now.

“Buckle up!” Barton shouted. “We’re here.”

Coulson and the Avengers quickly retook their seats, though they mostly just pushed the straps loosely together as Barton landed the jet so smoothly, they could all have been standing freely and would barely have so much as wobbled on their feet.

As soon as the ramp hit the ground, they were all clambering out to be greeted by Tony Stark and Jonas, both looking a little lighter as they waited for their respective teams.

The Avengers huddled around Stark, and the others surrounded Jonas as he led them towards a staircase leading down to something. Kate and Peter spared a moment to stand near the edge and just look out over their hometown. The skyscrapers shone under the rising sun, the ocean glistening like a lit-up welcome home sign just for them.

“I feel like we’ve been gone for so long,” Peter said. “It’s weird to think it’s only been a couple days.”

“No kidding,” Kate said, trying not to think about just how eventful their long weekend has been. She took a deep breath of the air – freezing cold and piercing her lungs at this height and time of day, because even when welcoming its weary kids home, New York was nothing if not abrasive. “Let’s go.”

She and Peter strode over to where the rest of the group was meandering towards a stairwell around Jonas, the Avengers having apparently already gone down ahead of them. Jonas and Cassie were chatting about the former’s conversation with Iron Man on their flight-slash-race home, and Kate nudged Eli, Rikki, and Peter into watching Tommy watch Teddy and Billy’s hands brushing again and again.

For a moment, as they all clambered down the stairwell, Kate well and truly felt like she was home.

So of course that feeling was ruined when she stepped into a damn fine penthouse suite – swanky even by her own high standards – to see her father waiting for her by a circle of couches.

She froze, and her whole team did with her.

“Kate!” he cried out, sounding both worried and angry as he strode over, only to stop halfway through as he looked over Kate.

She looked down at herself, and winced as she remembered her – and everyone else – getting patched up by Doctors Banner and Ross before being hustled into the Quinjet. Her hoodie was unzipped and her shirt was torn up, so the bandages wrapped around most of her chest were peeking out at the world. Her right hand and left arm were also in bandages, and she hadn’t even noticed her limp and the tears in her pants around her shins until now. She could feel that her left cheek and right side of her jaw were sore and tender and probably purple, by now – at least that would match her outfit – and her hair was still suspiciously matted down on one side.

She never felt more alive, but she was also well aware that she looked almost anything but.

“Hi, Dad,” Kate said nervously, glancing at the others. While no one else was as bad as her, all of them except Teddy were sporting some pretty heavy bruises at the very least. Billy’s left arm was in a sling, his shoulder bulging with bandages, while Tommy’s white top was spotted with blood, and his pants around his shins were pretty torn up, too. Cassie’s own clothes were loose and ripped all over the place, and Rikki and Eli both had bandages around their hands and split lips. “How was your weekend?”

“How was – how was my _weekend?!_ ” he cried out in shock. A portly man, his face quickly turned red under the mop of dark hair he still had left. “You – you – I don’t even have words, young lady! You disappear for days on end-”

“Like you noticed,” Kate muttered under her breath.

“And just as I was getting ready to call the police, I get a phone call that you’d been breaking into military compounds and FBI buildings and abetting fugitives-”

“They’re _not_ fugitives!” Kate snapped, gesturing to her friends. “They’re my friends!”

That just made Dad even madder. Kate contemplated rolling with it, making him angrier until he stormed off in frustration, got drunk, then forgot the whole damn problem by the next morning.

But Kate could admit this was a bit bigger than the tabloids publishing pictures of her ‘drunk’, or a fight with some boys from her martial arts gym…or even a sexual assault.

Robert Bishop had never intended to be a father. At some point, he’d loved Kate’s mom enough to give it a go, anyway, and had been content with the fact he’d had to do almost nothing for the first decade or so of Kate’s life as her mom raised her almost on her own…well, on her own with the nannies.

When Mom died, Dad had mostly left Kate to the nannies and her own devices, and to this day, he still didn’t really know how to actually be a father.

“Look, Dad,” she said, sighing as she realized the Avengers – minus Coulson, Rogers, and Stark – were all just on the other side of the living room. Great, there were _two_ superhero teams watching this go down. “It isn’t a big deal. No one can identify me in any of the videos, so no one’ll know it’s me, or what I’ve been doing. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

“Just because that’s our biggest problem taken care of doesn’t mean that was our only one!” Dad said, and Kate saw the Avengers’ faces darken as her own team closed ranks around her.

“Sir,” Eli said, trying to be polite. “Kate hasn’t just been going around, breaking and entering – she _saved_ us – she saved our lives.”

“I’m sorry to hear that you have been through such difficult times,” Dad said, with the same tone of voice he apologized to various shareholders when stocks weren’t doing so well. “But Kate is just a child, and it should not be her rescuing you – especially not when it means breaking and entering into government property _multiples times!_ ”

Kate’s fists clenched, and she prepared to go into a spiel about how good or bad her chances at emancipating from him would be, how it would look to shareholders and how trying to stop her would be bad for the company, when Romanoff strode forward and said simply, “Mr. Bishop.”

“No!” Dad said, whirling and pointing an accusing finger at her. “You’re half the reason she’s been wandering around at night getting into fights-”

“For fuck’s sake, I’m not some little kid!” Kate cried out.

“ _Language!_ ” Dad shouted, face turning red again.

Kate ignored him. “And I haven’t been ‘getting into fights’ – I’ve been saving lives. I was doing good work, good enough that the Avengers spent time and effort trying to reel me in because they wanted to hire me.”

“We still want to hire you,” Barton said cheerfully. “We just have to wait until you’re eighteen to do that.”

Dad looked ready to explode.

“I was just going to say that we are having breakfast brought up,” Romanoff said, a reassuring hand by Dad’s elbow. It was such a classic and obvious manipulation tactic, but Dad still fell for it. “I understand that it’s been a…difficult situation…all around. Let’s try not to make any rash decisions. Eat, and we’ll talk over our options.”

“There are no options,” Dad said, still pissed but not of the exploding variety. He even looked amenable to the idea of breakfast. “Katherine will not be working with any of you, ever.”

“Technically, you can only stop until I’m eighteen,” Kate pointed out. “You can’t say or do anything after that, and if I play my cards right, not even before that. It probably won’t be _that_ hard to find a judge who’d be willing to emancipate me.”

Dad’s eyes widened in shock at her blatant challenge, but before they could descend into another argument, Thor quickly stepped in between them, saying, “Good sir, do not be hasty in your decisions. Your daughter has had several arduous days of battle and chase, and needs rest and food – as do you, as I cannot imagine you have gotten much of either in your worry for her.”

Kate snorted. Dad probably hadn’t even noticed she was missing until he got the phone call from the Avengers in the first place.

“Let us eat, and discuss things more rationally and with calmer heads,” Thor said. Dad still didn’t look particularly happy, but with the Black Widow at his side and motherfucking _Thor_ in front of him, he nodded stiffly.

Kate sighed. At least she could sit down before she had to do this again.

The Avengers moved to the circle of couches, taking Dad with them, and for a moment, it was just Kate in her friends.

“…your dad seems like a swell guy,” Peter said. “Really, chalk full of love and devotion, right there.”

“He wouldn’t know love and devotion if it bit him on the ass,” she said. “And knowing his last girlfriend, that may actually have happened.”

Peter cringed and everyone else snickered, and Eli reached down to squeeze her hand once, before leading the team to the couch circle, too. They took their seats warily, squeezing onto two of the couches. Kate pulled off her bow and her quiver, but still set them down between her feet, not quite ready to part from them yet.

“How far away _is_ breakfast?” Teddy asked, as Banner brought out a tray loaded down with creamers and sugars from behind a mini-bar in the corner. Barton carried out two big pots of coffee behind him, and Thor brought out a bag of large, Styrofoam cups.

“Breakfast shall be ready within fifteen minutes,” a prim, mechanical voice said from the ceiling, and everywhere else. Kate jerked, as did everyone else, and she had a hysterical thought that at least no one had gotten further than reaching out for the coffee by then.

“Everyone,” Jonas said. “Meet my father, JARVIS.”

Dad stared at Jonas like he was insane, and Jonas easily ignored him, focusing instead on his team’s reactions to…well, _his_ dad.

“…Pleasure to meet you, JARVIS,” Kate said, looking hesitantly up at the ceiling.

“It’s a pleasure to see you all in one piece,” JARVIS said, sounding amused. “And Mr. Parker, please accept my gratitude in helping Jonas with his repairs.”

Peter blinked owlishly at the ceiling. “Uh, you’re welcome?”

“Turn on the TV, JARVIS,” Romanoff said as she took a seat on the opposite side of the couch circle from Kate.

She hadn’t specified a channel, but when the TV came on, it was to the local news broadcast of the chaos downstairs, Coulson, Captain Rogers, and Stark standing on some kind of impromptu stage, as Coulson droned on blandly.

“…persons in the video were escaping HYDRA’s clutches at the time,” he said. “The incident in Albuquerque had not been an attack on the FBI, but on the HYDRA forces hiding beneath them and holding Spider-Man and Dr. Bruce Banner hostage. SHIELD will be contributing to repairs and enhancing security and transparency in both locations.”

Captain Rogers stepped forward, and started explaining that despite all appearances, the ‘people’ in the video were victims – victims of unwanted superhuman experimentation by HYDRA – and that the leader of the HYDRA project to create their own Avengers team has already been apprehended, and would be interrogated by both SHIELD and various military forces from around the world.

Apparently, Strucker had a _lot_ to answer for.

“You don’t belong in that world,” Dad grumbled at Kate. “It’s so…unsafe.”

“Uh-huh,” Kate said without paying him much attention. Around the table, everyone was reaching out, fixing themselves coffee and watching the broadcast with otherwise undivided attention.

For a few minutes after that, reporters were asking about the nature of the incidents, the attacks, what SHIELD’s involvement was. It didn’t take long, though, for someone to ask about the team more directly.

Kate didn’t hear who it was, but someone asked, “Will SHIELD be hiring on the new superhumans as assets?”

Coulson took a deep breath, and Rogers and Stark both looked tense even on camera.

“Oh, shit,” Barton said, sitting up.

“We cannot hire them at this time, due a policy that had been long-standing with the old SHIELD and we carried over into the new one,” Coulson said.

He waited for someone to ask, “And what policy is that?”, because apparently, he was going to tell the truth.

“SHIELD does not hire minors,” he said calmly. “We can’t hire any of the new superhumans until they are at least eighteen years old.”

Behind her line of sight, Kate heard her dad say, “And that is still far too young! Hmp!”

“What about Blackhawk and Spider-Man?” someone else shouted. “You have their identities, now!”

“We hope to hire them, as well, once they reach eighteen years of age,” Coulson said curtly, and the broadcast was so silent for a moment that Kate wondered if JARVIS had muted the TV or something.

Then there was chaos as everyone at the press conference shouted questions, ignoring Captain Rogers’ request that they all calm so the questions could be answered one at a time. No one there seemed to believe that Blackhawk and Spider-Man could be children, and while Kate couldn’t hear what Stark said, she could read his lips enough to realize he was telling Rogers, _I told you so._

“Thanks, JARVIS,” Banner said, and now the TV _did_ mute, captions scrolling across the bottom.

“See, this is why you need to be kept away from this nonsense,” Dad said immediately. “It’s for your own good.”

Kate stared at him incredulously. “ _My own good?!_ ”

He pointedly looked at all her bandages.

“Two words, Dad,” Kate hissed, setting down her coffee before she spilled it all over herself. “Medical. Torture.”

“And that’s why I don’t want you near any of this!” he cried out.

“It’s a bit late for that,” she said.

“Two words,” Dad threw back at her. “Boarding school.”

Kate laughed bitterly. “What boarding school could hold me?”

“Do you really want to test me on this, young lady?” Dad demanded.

This time, Kate was the one to gesture towards all her bandages. “I’ve been pretty damn well tested this weekend, Dad. I think I can go a couple rounds with you.”

Dad opened his mouth, but Romanoff immediately said, “Mr. Bishop, Kate – let’s stop this right now. You’re both tense and upset, as you both have every right to be-” Kate sincerely hoped Romanoff was just saying that. “-so let’s not say anything we can’t take back, right now.”

Again, Dad subsided, and Kate breathed in as deeply as she could as she turned her attention back to the screen. JARVIS unmuted the TV again.

As she listened to Coulson explain how and why the identities of Blackhawk, Spider-Man, and the other new superhuman entities were being kept secret – and the number of politicians and security officials who now knew those identities and yet again concurred on the secrecy – Kate couldn’t help but think about what she’d said to Eli when she’d been arguing in favor of them taking their story to the press.

Prison was a very real threat, as were so many, many other things that came with the world knowing who she was and what she did.

But it was much harder to disappear when the whole world was looking for you. At the time, she’d just meant disappearing into a prison or another medical facility…but maybe, trying not to let someone make her vanish could mean boarding school, too.

She swallowed, once, twice, then asked gently, “You guys have a bathroom around here?”

“Of course, Ms. Bishop,” JARVIS said. “Simply start by going to the door beside the mini-bar.”

Kate got up, picking up her bow and quiver with her and hoping it just looked like it was due to habit instead of planning. Dad was arguing with Romanoff, and nearly everyone else was focusing on the TV.

Except Eli, who raised an eyebrow when he caught her eye.

Kate smirked, and went to the door. However, instead of going to the bathroom, she looked around until she found the door to the stairwell, and went down.

“Ms. Bishop?” JARVIS asked as soon as she reached the next floor down. “What are you doing?”

She strode to the elevator and said, “Can you take me to the lobby?”

“…I can,” JARVIS said. “But that does not mean I will. What are you intending?”

“I’m going to protect my team and myself,” Kate said calmly. “And that’ll include Jonas, by the way.”

For a few moments, the room was silent, and Kate idly wondered what floor she was even on. It looked like someone’s personal residence, but pristine and almost unlived in.

Then the elevator doors opened.

“Thank you, JARVIS,” she said cheerfully, striding in quickly and turning around as the doors slid shut behind her.

“Do not thank me yet,” JARVIS said. “I am still not sure I shouldn’t stop this elevator and you with it.”

“Are you under any obligation to tell the others I’m headed down?” Kate asked, reaching into one of the pockets along her quiver and pulling out her signature low-light shades she’d brought along but never actually gotten around to wearing.

“No, Ms. Bishop,” JARVIS said warily.

“Then let’s go down, and I’ll tell you why you shouldn’t,” she said, pulling them out, and tugging out her scarf from where it had been wrapped around her arrows.

“I hope you have a convincing argument, Ms. Bishop,” JARVIS said. “Because if you are doing what I think you are doing-”

“I am,” Kate said, as the elevator started moving despite JARVIS’s clear apprehension. “It’s…okay, you’ve been around since Mr. Stark first went public with the Iron Man thing, right?”

“And opened himself up to threats and intimidation from the whole world?” JARVIS said. “Yes, I remember that quite vividly.”

“Well, yeah, Tony kind of opened up a lot of vulnerabilities with that,” Kate admitted, adjusting her shades and scarf so that her face was covered, the way she’d done it as Blackhawk. “You can’t deny that he also opened up new and better ways to protect himself and his team in the long run…and protect him from himself. The accountability helped keep him from going too far, didn’t it?”

JARVIS stayed silent.

“Look – we’ve all already had our true identities registered by legal authorities, anyway. But if we go public, that means we’ve got an avenue for support – _public_ support. After all the political upheaval and everything with HYDRA…people vote more, or at least they’re trying to.” Kate hung her quiver off her hip, and arranged her remaining arrows – only three left, and one she’d actually taken from Barton – in as artful an arrangement as she could. “They’re trying to pay attention more to make sure that they don’t get taken advantage of again. If I can build up support early enough, they’ll help make sure _we_ don’t get taken advantage of, either.”

“All of this presumes that they would support you at all in the first place,” JARVIS said. “They may very well turn against you.”

“Oh, please,” she said. “They already love the Avengers, and here we are, the kiddie versions who were victims of circumstances beyond our control. It won’t take much to spin this story so people are eating out of our hands. But right now? They _really_ hate secrecy.”

“I’ve noticed,” JARVIS drawled.

“These secrets are eventually going to come out, so we might as well be the ones offering them to the world instead of waiting for someone else to do it for us,” Kate said. “But you’re right, not everyone on the team can afford to do that. Me? I can. I can totally be the sacrificial lamb to buy them some time and good will from the world to get themselves together before they have to do the same.”

JARVIS didn’t answer, but he didn’t stop the elevator, either. She finished arranging her quiver, and started adjust her bow, pulling it over so the limbs diagonally crossed her back, the string cutting across her chest, right between her boobs.

“Someone has to take one for the team,” she said finally. “And after everything else the rest of them have been through? I think that someone should be me. Besides, I’m the only one with no super powers or justification for SHIELD to override my father’s will about training or staying on with the team.” She checked her appearance as well as she could in the flat metal of the elevator interior. “He may not listen to SHIELD, but he’ll sure as hell listen to his stock prices, and those’ll plummet if it comes out he’s trying to stop the most recognizable figure among the younger Avengers from being, well, a young Avenger.”

“…I find your argument very convincing, Ms. Bishop,” JARVIS said.

“Good,” she said, the elevator slowing as it approached the ground level where the press conference was being held. “Keep an eye on the rest for me, okay? They’re gonna freak out when they see this.”

“Of course,” JARVIS said as the elevator came to a halt. “The press event is taking place in Conference Room C, which will be three doors down on your left. However, if you veer right, going around and behind the elevators, and follow the internal doors, you can find a door to the backroom of the event. It will be marked as such.”

“Thank you, JARVIS,” she said.

“Good luck, Ms. Bishop,” she said.

“Thanks,” she said, smiling at the camera that she figured JARVIS was watching her out of before flattening her expression as much as she could.

When the elevator doors opened, no one immediately noticed her – ‘no one’ being two milling security guards, and what looked like a handful of employees and maybe one or two reporters who were just about to leave. By the time they saw her, she’d already gone exactly where JARVIS had directed her, away from the obvious noise of the press room and instead circling around the elevator bank into a less opulent, more practical hallway.

It didn’t take long to find the door that said _Conference C Sideroom_ , and allowed herself two deep breaths before she opened the door.

She stopped in the door way when instead of random staffers, she was met with random staffers and Tony Stark.

Everyone stopped and stared at her, even Stark – actually, he looked most surprised of all.

“What the hell are you doing down here, Bi – Blackhawk?”

Kate swallowed. The last time she’d had to face the Avengers head-on in a challenge, it had ended with her on action lockdown, and it had taken every ounce, every _drop_ , of her willpower not to wilt under their gaze.

Now, it was scarily easy to look Stark in the eye and say, “I’m going to have to change the plan here a little bit.”

Stark gave her a long, considering look, before he turned to all the support staffers and said simply, “Give us a minute.”

The three media-looking people all protested, but Stark shot them all a withering glare that impressed Kate, but no longer scared her, and they gathered up their laptops, tablets, and papers, and quickly filed out of the room, closing the door behind Kate. Stark sat in one of the temp chairs at the low table, and at his gesture, Kate took her seat opposite of him.

For a moment, it was just her and Stark, as they listened to the sound of Captain Rogers detailing the Avengers’ involvement with the Albuquerque debacle from just outside the door.

“I know that face,” Stark said finally. “I wore it, once.” He smiled softly and said, “I’d been kidnapped and tortured by terrorists, betrayed by my only family member left, and nearly killed by weapons of my own design…but standing on that podium, telling the world who I was? Not gonna lie, that was a much scarier thing to do, at least when I was actually doing it.”

Kate blinked in surprise, before tilting her head in honest consideration.

“Do you ever regret going public?” she asked.

“Oh, all the time,” Stark said easily, leaning back in his chair. “Most of all when those around me get hurt because of Iron Man.”

Kate bit her lip. “So…if you could go back to that moment…?”

Stark smirked. “I’d do exactly the same thing all over again.”

It took two tries, but she smiled. “Really?”

Stark nodded. “But that’s because I also had resources that could protect me in my publicity, and could help my friends. I’m not sure I can say the same about you.”

“If I don’t do something, my dad is going to do everything in his power to make sure I never work as Blackhawk again,” Kate said. “And if it were just about keeping me under house arrest or shipping me off to boarding school until my 18th birthday, well…I’d deal.”

Stark tilted his head forward, glancing at her over his own indoor sunglasses.

“Teddy has no family left,” she said. “And Rikki’s family sucks, and Tommy and Billy’s foster parents may have all the love in the world, but that may not be enough to help them. Who the hell knows how Cassie and Eli’s families will deal with this, and Peter – he has so much to _answer_ for, more than his aunt may want to hear. And after this, after today and after reuniting with – or learning how to move on without – our families…we still have to just go on with our lives.”

“And?” Stark asked. “That’ll be easier if no one knows who you are.”

“I know,” Kate said, fighting down the urge to fiddle with one of her arrows. “But – think about it. Can any of us really just go back to school and normal, teenage life after this? I sure as hell can’t, and I don’t even have superpowers.”

Stark’s lips twisted in a grim non-smile. “I know the feeling. Everything you thought you knew has been ripped out from under you, and everything you knew you thought has been turned upside down.”

She laughed at that. “No kidding. I know that – spending a few days doing all this probably seems like nothing compared to three months with terrorists-”

“Don’t go down that road, Bishop,” Stark said immediately. “Do not try comparing our experiences, they are different things entirely. We’ve both been through hell and back, and we survived and came out stronger for it.” Stark glanced down at her hoodie, which was zipped up to hide her bandages and wounds. “A lot stronger.”

Kate could hear what sounded like Coulson and Captain Rogers finishing up the conference outside, and tried to find a way to phrase her thoughts in a way that would convince Stark not to put up a fight when she walked out the other door to the stage.

Finally, she said, “We aren’t going to be able to hide forever. I might as well be the first one – if nothing else, my dad can’t stop me from helping my friends when they need me, and something tells me they will.” She swallowed. “And maybe I can make sure that everyone else wants to help them, too.”

Stark slowly smiled. “You have a good sense of foresight, Bishop.”

She smiled and shrugged, a show of modesty that she didn’t really feel, right now. “I try.”

He laughed. “Well, in that case, I have no reason to get up right now. But apparently, you do.”

She grinned outright at that. “Thanks, Mr. Stark,” she said, getting up.

“Mr. Stark was my father, call me Tony,” he said, holding out his hand to her. “It’s nice to finally meet the real you.”

“The real me generally goes by Kate,” she said, shaking his hand once before striding out to the second door in the small room.

Just in time – most of the press were getting up to leave, rushing to laptops and offices to be the first ones to get the best stories in.

Well, she was about to give them one hell of a story.

She blew past a startled Coulson and Captain America, shouting to the room, “Change of plans, people!”

Everyone stopped, and instantly, every eye – biological and digital – was turned on her.

“Blackhawk…” Coulson murmured to her warningly, voice too low for anyone but her and Rogers to hear. The Captain said nothing. “What the hell are you doing?

“Some of you might think of me as just a vigilante,” Kate said to the room at large, ignoring Coulson. “A stupid, petty criminal, which I kind of am. Some of you might think I’m a hero, which I appreciate but I’m really, really not. By now, all of you know me as Blackhawk…”

Here, she reached up, pulling off her shades and her scarf, easily dropping them to the floor and revealing her face to the world.

She probably would end up re regretting this just as much as Stark would, and she knew she was going to be ripped to shreds in the court of public opinion, and dragged through the mud of the court of law. Her father was probably having a heart attack as she stood there, and no doubt her friends – from school, from her gym, and from the penthouse upstairs – were all freaking out right now.

But now – now, it wasn’t anyone holding her down but herself. Now, she could have her friend’s backs, and now, maybe she could do a little more good for the world than just prowling around the streets in the middle of the night.

She knew the world was about to throw everything it had at her to make her quit. But as far as she was concerned…

“But some of you know me as Kate Bishop,” she announced, smirking into the blinding wall of light as every camera flashed and lit up to capture her face.

…the world could _bring it_.

~*~


End file.
